League of Exceptionals Vol II
by The Threat
Summary: Much as the title suggests, this is a sequel to my earlier 'Leaugue of Exceptionals' story.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is owned by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Other than the character "Kenneth Tam", not one character mentioned here is mine.

* * *

Pyrenees, Spain, November 10th 2010:

An old man with a cane, wrapped up for the snow that keeps falling in this area. As this man went higher up, his vision went from bad to worse, what with all the snow blinding him. In the end, he had no other option but to take out something from his pockets. That something appeared like a blue stone, shaped to look like a miniature person, and for some reason glowing brightly. Despite all the modern technologies, this man wanted to use something a bit more nostalgic. At some point, he also realized just how dark things were getting. He turned to look at where the sun was. Or rather, he turned to look at Lucifer, which is what people have started to call the sun that Jupiter became, just six months ago. For the months that have passed, there was no night, as when one sun went down, Lucifer would rise. But this time, this one has set along with the first sun, so the night has returned. This didn't make his trip any easier, but this man was determined to not let this little inconvenience stop him.

After some time, he finally arrived where he wanted to be. Wherever it was, it had the appearance of a large castle. He put his blue stone back in his pocket, before he went to the castle's door, though it was big enough to call it a gate rather than anything else. Here, he pulled on a cord, which rang the bell. After some time, somebody opened the door. It was a man, who would be a man-servant, if it wasn't for the fact that he looked a little more like a clown. His face was black, too black to be African, not even shaped like that of an African, and his lips were unnaturally red. If anything, this man had the appearance of a Caucasian that painted his face to look... like a black clown. Some may wonder if this man, or the one he's serving, has some kind of issues with black men.

"Black Pete?" the old man asked the servant.

"Who are you?" the servant, Pete, questioned.

"I came to see your master, Saint Nicholas." the old man answered.

"I'm sorry, but my boss is very busy." Pete told him, "We're already behind schedule, as in a month we must..."

"I don't expect you to understand this." the old man interrupted, "But it's really urgent."

Pete sighed: "All right. I'll see what I can do."

Pete went back inside, leaving the old man to wait. After some time, Pete opened the door again, much more widely this time to let this old man in.

"He's in his study." Pete told him, "Shall I take you to him?"

"Please do." the old man replied.

Pete lead, and the old man followed.

When they made it to the aforementioned study, that belonged to this Saint Nicholas, the said saint was reading what looked like a long scroll, where he was putting ticks next to names, judging from what he was reading out loud. Once he heard Pete and the old man enter, he stopped reading and looked at them. The old man was hooded, so it was hard for him to see his face. However, the old man had a very long beard, like Nicholas himself, except that the latter's beard was white, whereas the old man's appeared to be grey.

"Ah, the man who could not wait." Nicholas said, "Patience is a virtue. Did you know that?"

"I do." the old man answered, as he raised his head to look at him, "But I have virtues that overshadow that."

As this man raised his head, Nicholas could see his face more clearly, and immediately recognized him: "You?!"

"Yes. Me." the old man said, just before he took off his robe, flashing the blue stone he used before.

Nicholas was about to pick up his staff, but the old man used the power of the stone to shoot that staff. Pete rushed in to help, but the old man's own cane was enough to knock him down.

"Pete!" Nicholas shouted, just when the old man shot another light at him.

With Nicholas down, the old man could approach him. Nicholas tried to get up, but he was too much weakened from the blast.

"Don't worry, my saint." the old man assured him, "You will not feel anything."


	2. Chapter 2

Seattle, Washington, November 12th 2010:

At a cemetery, we find a man, wearing a long black trench coat, sitting on one of the graves, reading a book, entitled "The Vernier Tarot and the Life of Claude Debussy", by Meredith Martin. Next to him lay a stack of books, some of which were even comics. Whatever this man was doing, or whatever his intentions, were unclear to the casual observer. Then again, at night time, which happens only once every few months, nobody would care about why one would spend his time in a cemetery, using one of the rare occasions to read under the pale moonlight. Nobody, except for one. As the man sat on the tombstone, he heard a woman passing by. Anyone could tell it was a woman, as the clicking of her heels as she passed by would make that clear. But it's not the first time that somebody passes by, so this man payed no further attention to it. Until he heard sound getting muffled, like she left the pavement road and traded for natural ground under her feet, and suddenly this woman sounded as though she was approaching him. The man didn't have an explanation at the ready as to what he was doing, but he didn't think he needed to explain this to this woman. The voice in his head that told him not to trust this woman became redundant, although it had helped him in the past.

"You know…" the woman started, "… I don't think Kenny would like it very much if he knew you were sitting on his grave."

The man didn't need to look down to know that the grave belonged to Kenneth Tam, whom this woman just refered to as Kenny, but he kept his cool: "Yeah, well I'm pretty sure he won't mind."

This is when the woman realized something: "You know, you're the first guy I've met that looks away from me."

The man didn't need to ask what she meant by that. One glance was enough to see what she looked like. She had long black hair, wore a red top, under a black robe, a black skirt, which revealed much of her legs despite what were the weather conditions at the time, and black heels which accented her legs. One look at her could make one forget one little detail, which was immediately an answer to her question.

"Girlfriend." he said.

"Really?" this surprised her, "And she doesn't mind your death? Or is she on the other side as well?"

The man didn't say anything out loud, but turned to the voice in his head: "How does she know that?"

"She's using the powers of the very old ones." the voice explained, "Therefor she has her way of sensing me, and thereby knowing what you are."

"That's your own grave you're sitting on, isn't it?" the woman then asked, although she sounded like she already knew.

The man got up: "Alright, that's enough. Who are you?"

"Tamara." the woman answered, "Nice meeting you too, Kenny."

The man, Kenny, didn't want to play games, as that's what this woman, Tamara, sounded like, so he bluntly spoke: "I'm pretty sure you didn't come here to chat."

"No." Tamara replied, "I'm just curious about why you're reading here."

"Didn't know any other place to read." Kenny explained, "At least at the cemetery people expect to see ghosts. Plus, I was hoping to have read all this before I died, so…"

Tamara nodded, seemingly understanding this: "Of course, quickly do what you always wanted before you leave this life. But…"

Tamara then looked at the other things he had: "The Black Freighter, 30 Days Of Night, Match Made In Space, even this stupid story with Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet AND Stupendous Man? Is this really why the crow would send you back?"

Kenny would ask Tamara how she knew that, but the voice in his head, which was that of the said crow, told him she could sense him, so there was no real point in asking. Still, there were other things on his mind that needed to be said.

"You tell me, coz that crow is not making me any wiser." Kenny explained, "I thought I was brought back to save my girlfriend, and our unborn child. I've done exactly that, and I'm still here."

"And these here help because…?" Tamara still hadn't figured out where those books come in.

"Just a stupid thought." Kenny answered, "You know how the dead often stay in the realm of the living for unfinished business? I thought that was it. To read those things before I die."

"You're girlfriend would love to hear that." Tamara sounded sarcastic.

"Tess knows I'm supposed to be dead." Kenny replied, "So she knows I won't be staying around her much longer. If I do, she might fall back to becoming schizophrenic. So as much as I like spending more time with her, witnessing the birth of our son, I can't do that."

"Maybe that's why you're still here." Tamara spoke, "To witness his birth."

"But not doing anything that would harm Tess." Kenny retorted.

"So you love your girlfriend so much you would stay away from her." Tamara still had that sarcastic tone to her voice.

"I know, it doesn't make any sense." Kenny replied.

"But then, the crow would not have brought you back if your emotions and your intentions weren't pure." Tamara reasoned, upon which she turned to face him: "Maybe I can help."

"How?" Kenny asked her.

Tamara raised her hand to touch his face, but Kenny grabbed her wrist, keeping her from doing that.

"Wait a minute!" he exclaimed, "What are you pl…"

Before he could finish his question, Tamara raised her other hand as well, but Kenny grabbed that wrist too. Not being able to do much else, Tamara decided lay her hands on his arms, as much as she could, which was more than adequate for her to see what she wanted. Still, Kenny could sense something wasn't right, so he let go of her and took a few steps back.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"A… a blue light…" Tamara whispered.

"What?" Kenny was still confused.

"When you were on the other side, you saw a painting, right?" she asked, "Which had an old man holding a rock that casts blue light?"

The first thing that came to his mind was to ask her how she saw that, but Kenny changed his mind and answered: "Yes."

"I've seen such a light before." Tamara answered, "Come with me."

She turned around to leave the cemetery. Kenny, unaware of what laid in store for him, didn't know what else to do, so he followed her.

* * *

Note: if you want to know more about Kenny's adventure on the other side, you should read another story of mine: "The Other Side"


	3. Chapter 3

Manhattan Island, New York:

With most of the buildings being rebuild, one would assume that there's not much of a city left, therefor no place for criminal activity. Still, this type of activity is and always has been abundant, especially in this city. Namely homicide. Two dead bodies were found, both were male and of about the same age, which was past their thirties. But that's not the most disturbing part of this scene, as the detectives on the case will soon realize.

Two men arrived there, showing their badges to other cops, so to confirm who they are, upon which they crossed the yellow tapes.

"All the precincts have joined forces for over a whole fucking year, and I still can't remember all the faces." the fat one of the two spoke, "I don't even know which one of these fucks we can trust. What do you think, Twitch?"

"I think we still have a case to solve, Sam." the other man, Twitch, replied.

"Yeah, got that right." the fat one, Sam, replied, suddenly seeing a familiar face, "Ah! Parkman! There's a face I can remember."

"Good, you're both here." another man, Parkman, came to them, "Good you're here. I never thought I'd prefer your foul mouth over Sipowicz's whining."

"Hey!" the aforementioned Sipowicz exclaimed, "I keep telling you, doing business with a Latino, and you're asking for trouble.

"Er…" the forensics expert reasoned, "I said this guy's South-American, I didn't say…"

"Yeah, I heard you." Sipowicz interrupted, "Still, he did business with a colored person. That could never end right."

"Here we go." Sam remarked, "Did jumping to those conclusions ever help you?"

"Well, if you can't see the truth yourself…" Sipowicz started.

"What fucking truth?" Sam wondered, "We find one dead white man, and one of a different color, also fucking dead, and you almost sound like that other guy is behind it all."

And from here on in, the two started arguing, which helped other cops to do their work, while not being distracted by Sipowicz racist remarks.

"So, Adam, wasn't it?" Twitch asked the forensics expert, who nodded, "What can you tell us?"

"Well, for one thing…" the expert, Adam, explained, "… both of them show these tan marks on their ring-fingers, which means they wore rings, but they're gone now."

"So it's just a robbery that ended in murder." Twitch deduced.

"But you don't think that's the case, right Adam?" Parkman asked him.

"You're a real mind-reader, Matt." Adam referred to Parkman by his first name, "If you look at their eyes, you can see... okay, maybe you can't see it, but the way the look now, it points out that they were blinded at first, which disoriented them, upon which they were defenseless when they were forced against the wall, upon which they were beaten so they were more defenseless when they were finally electrocuted."

"If the culprit was just planning to rob them, why go through all that trouble?" Twitch wondered.

Quite nearly Parkman said something, but he quickly changed his mind, and asked: "And their wallets?"

"We didn't find one on that South-American guy, but it doesn't look like he ever had one in his pockets." Adam explained, "But this other guy still had his. The culprit was definitely after their rings."

"So who is he?" Twitch asked, pointing to the Caucasian's body.

"His I.D. says he's Wheeler Turner. He's from Brooklyn." Adam answered.

At that point, Parkman heard something, which caused him to get up and look around. Who or whatever caused whatever he heard, he didn't see it. He decided he must have imagined it.

"And here's the most interesting part." Adam pointed to Wheeler's hand, which held some hair, "You'd say this hair belongs to an old man, but judging from it's decayed state, it looks more like the hair of a dead old man."

"Are you saying we're dealing with a walking dead person?" Parkman asked.

"We've seen dead coming back to attack the living before." Twitch remarked.

"But never one this smart." Adam reminded them, "I can't make any sense out of this. Can you?"

Twitch merely shrugged, but Parkman heard that sound again, which has him look around, quite wearily. When others ask him what's wrong, he ignored them. Parkman ran to wherever he thought the sound came from, but found nothing.

"What's wrong Matt?" Twitch asked him.

"I don't know." Parkman replied, "I keep hearing someone. I can't make sense of what he's thi… saying, but it sounds like he's sad about something."

Within the sewers, or what's left of them, a group of four are running to their usual lair, under the form of a race. In the end, only one of them won, much to the dismay of at least one of them.

"One of these days, Leo…" the dismayed one complained, "I'll beat you in this race."

"I'm not stopping you from tryin', Raph." Leo replied.

"Pizza." the shortest of the four suddenly said.

"Yeah, we'll get some soon, Mikey." the fourth one assured him.

"No. I mean I smell cold pizza from our kitchen." the short one, Mikey, explained.

Leo looks carefully around, and somehow drew the following conclusion: "There's someone in there."

The four of them got ready to sneak into their lair, about to attack whoever intruded their property. They sneaked in, headed towards the kitchen, where they saw a man with a trench coat, a grey head and brown hat, eating their pizza, while it's still cold.

"Took you long enough to get here." the man spoke.

Mikey started to twitch: "That blew our cover."

The man turned to look at them, while taking another bite in the slice he had in his hand. The four could see how the man's face seemed to be made out of black spots that, for some reason, kept shifting. Even the mouth he had didn't look like your usual mouth, but a hole for the food to be thrown in.

"What are you?" Leo asked this man.

"Was about to ask the same." the man spoke, "You're all turtles, dressed like ninjas, and I have to tell you what I am?"

"He's got a point there." the fourth turtle said.

"Oh, please, Donny!" Raph complained.

"What do you want from us?" Leo asked him.

"There was a murder, happened tonight, only a few blocks away from here. Two were killed. Want to know if you saw something." the man explained.

"Other than you?" Raph asked him.

"You don't think we've did it?" Donny questioned.

"I hate it when people don't answer my questions." the man said.

"Then you should know how we feel about having you here." Leo remarked.

"And you're not being clear." Mikey told him, "You want to know if we saw something, but I've seen lot of things tonight. I've seen a crane lifting up a metal bar, I've seen one of those bugs that Clover left behind, I saw a blue light, even…"

"Mikey, that's enough!" Raph stopped him from raving on.

"A blue light?" the man questioned, at which point the black spots on his face seemed to make a facial expression, or something that resembled it. After that he threw the rest of the pizza in his mouth, and made to leave, "I heard enough."

"Wait, that's it?" Leo was curious.

"What's so special about that blue light?" Donny asked.

"And are you gonna buy us a new pizza?" Mikey asked him.

The man ignored them, as he left them.

"Hey! Don't think about leaving!" Raph shouted after him, upon which he followed the man.

He followed him back into the sewers, but by the time he got there, the man was already gone.

"What is this guy?" Raph wondered.


	4. Chapter 4

Bucharest, Romania, November 13th 2010:

On this side of the world, it's far past midnight, nearly sunrise, so while everyone is going about their business in the States, here there was a couple who had other things on their mind. Although it has been years since their victory against... virtually everyone else of their kind, the castle they claimed as their own was far from adapted to befit this couple. Still, as their lives will go on for... ever, they might as well spent the first few on making their new home habitable. Since they don't necessarily require sleep, they can work entire nights on the castle, while getting all their needed supplies during the day. But given their hard work, they don't always find the time to keep up with the recent news about the world. This one early morning, they decided to take a break from work. In doing so, they sat down and read the last weeks papers.

"This is funny." the man of the couple said, "It's been days since Lucifer is on the same side as the sun, and he still makes the front page. While that giant robot incident in Flanders of a few months ago doesn't even make the main article of foreign news."

After the man said that, the woman didn't reply. Something got her fixed on one particular article in the paper she was reading.

"Selene?" the an called her, but she didn't reply.

He got up, walked to her, waved his hand before her eyes, which woke her up.

"Oh... I'm sorry Michael." the woman, Selene, replied.

"What's wrong?" the man, Michael, asked her.

"Nothing." Selene replied, "I just remembered something from many years ago. When I first visited the Ardennes."

"Really?" Michael sounded curious.

"We arrived at an old castle, that was inhabited by a very old alchemist." Selene continued, "It happened long ago, so I don't remember all the details, but I do remember his castle exploding, and seeing a blue light right after."

"A blue light?" Michael, despite their earlier adventures, sounded skeptic.

"Yes." Selene answered, "I too thought it was some trick of the mind, but..."

She showed him the article she was reading. It talked about a dead body being found in Eastern Europe. A witness claimed to have heard a struggle, but didn't see the actual attack. What the witness did see was a blue light.

"You think it's connected somehow?" he asked her.

"I can't be positive." Selene answered, "I mean, the alchemist wasn't a vampire or lycan, and this happened hundreds of years ago. But still..."

"Are you sure you're not just looking for a fight?" Michael asked her.

Selene became silent at that, upon which Michael continued: "I know, most of your life has been about finding and killing lycans, and now there aren't many of them left, or any reason left to fight them at all..."

"Oh, shut up." Selene interrupted him.

"I'm sorry." he apologized, "I'd just hate it if the same thing that happened in Munich were to happen again."

"I didn't start that fight!" Selene insisted.

"No, but you couldn't stop stalking the guy who did." Michael reasoned.

This angered Selene enough, so she rose from her seat and headed out the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"It just occurred to me." Selene answered, "Corvinus's blood made me insensitive to sunlight, yet I never went out for a quick run at daytime."

This was all she said before she walked out the door, leaving Michael bewildered about what to do next. He started to doubt whether living an immortal would be worth it if all they'd do is bickering about the stupidest things.

Seattle, Washington, November 12th 2010, 22:56:

Kenny and Tamara were walking to... wherever Tamara was taking him. Kenny had no idea where that would be, but for some reason, that didn't matter much.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked her at some point.

"Does it matter?" Tamara asked in return.

"If you want me to not think you have some ulterior motive..." Kenny replied, "... yes it matters."

Tamara sighed: "Well, since you'll be back among the dead when this is over, I suppose I could tell you."

"Tell me what?" Kenny questioned.

"Like you, I'm not exactly alive either." Tamara explained, "I tried to conduct this lovespell. In doing so, the moment my blood was spilled, which so happened to be the moment I was killed, I came back from the dead, being what the old detective stories would call a femme fatale."

"Why doesn't that surprise me." Kenny cynically remarked.

"Being that gave me the power of controlling other people by merely touching them." Tamara continued.

"But with me being a crow, that made me immune to that, didn't it?" Kenny asked her.

"Yeah." Tamara sighed, "Anyway, then I died again, but not without having my will put on someone else, who took my spell-book and brought me back to life. This time more powerful than before. But these powers... they get annoying sometimes."

"How?" Kenny asked her.

"Well, two years ago, for instance, I felt some kind of force had put a tumor inside a guy's head." Tamara explained, "As obnoxious as that guy was, I just had to help so I wouldn't sense the tumor anymore. The same goes with you. And sensing the presence of someone like you..."

Tamara didn't finish, but Kenny understood: "I see. You're just looking for a cure for a nasty itch."

"You catch on quickly, don't you?!" Tamara asked, rhetorically.

"So even if the future of the world were at stake, you couldn't care less." Kenny wondered.

"Would you? Care about people you don't know?" Tamara asked him.

"If I want my girlfriend to survive, and our child to be born..." Kenny replied, not needing to finish his sentence.

"Here we are." Tamara said, stopping at an old house, which can be recognized as an internet bar.

"Here?" Kenny asked her, "That place went down with the pulse. The computers don't work anymore."

"Not on electricity." Tamara corrected him, as she headed towards the door.

Kenny didn't know what she could possibly mean, but at that moment there wasn't much else to go on either. So he followed her inside.


	5. Chapter 5

Inside the bar, there weren't many computers left. And even those few who were, weren't all in one piece still.

"Well, it looks like you have your way." Tamara said, "None of these will help us."

"What were you hoping to find anyway?" Kenny asked her.

"Just a way to connect to the internet." Tamara answered.

"And can't you just grab the cable and connect?" Kenny suggested, "I mean, you can do magic after all."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Tamara replied, though there was a hint of sarcasm, "But I never tried that before."

"First time for everything." Kenny encouraged her.

Tamara sighed: "I can try."

With that said, she searched the junk, looking for one internet cable. When she eventually found one, she held it's plug in her right hand, upon which she focused.

"Funny, isn't it?" Tamara said, "That despite that pulse, internet still works."

"Yeah well, only the US suffers from that pulse, plus it only worked on the machines that were switched on." Kenny told her, "So really, that doesn't surprise me."

"If you say so." Tamara replied, and after a few more seconds she got something: "I knew it! I knew I had seen it before!"

"Care to share?" Kenny asked her.

"In the Pyrenees, two days ago." Tamara spoke, "It was all on the news. There was a cloud that hung over the mountains. It's always been there, but it disappeared all of a sudden."

"Really?" Kenny was surprised to hear that.

"In doing so, it revealed an old castle." Tamara continued, "Where the corpses of two men were found. Some even dare to think these two were paedophiliacs, as they housed a lot of toys in this castle."

"Where does that blue light fit in?" Kenny finally asked.

"It's pretty much the only clue they have on who was responsible for their deaths." Tamara answered, "Upon the disappearance of the clouds, a satellite picked up a strange light, which nobody can place. Other than saying that it was blue."

"So what now? We go to the Pyrenees?" Kenny wondered.

"Wait a minute." Tamara suddenly saw something else, "There's something else."

"What?" Kenny was curious.

"In Eastern Europe, and in Asia, they found more bodies." Tamara explained, "Two in total, but in each case eye-witnesses claim to have seen a blue light."

Kenny thought about it: "This would sound like just a serial killer, but..."

"I know." Tamara agreed, "The crow wouldn't send you back to hunt just a serial kill..."

This is when Tamara saw something else, which got Kenny worried: "What is it?"

"Someone else is searching too." Tamara answered, "Looks like we're not the only ones who made the connection."

"If it makes it on the news, it was only a matter of time." Kenny deduced.

"Maybe." Tamara said, "Except that nobody from the US would be concerned about homicide in either Europe or Asia. Also, he used the same search item as I did. Blue light."

"Think he might know something we don't?" Kenny asked her.

"I don't know." Tamara said, "We can ask him, and if he doesn't, I can still wipe his memory."

"Ask him?" Kenny didn't understand, "How?"

Before he could resist, Tamara had already grabbed Kenny's hand, upon which she used some more of her magic, which made the two of them disappear from the bar.

Manhattan Island, 02:04:

It was 23:03 when Tamara made her and Kenny disappear in Seattle, which is exactly three hours behind the time in New York, where the other guy was searching for a blue light over the internet as well. On that guy's screen, he saw a black spot appearing, which eventually became much larger. Large enough to allow two humans to jump out and knocked this guy to the floor.

One of them turned out to be Kenny: "This... felt weird."

"It worked." Tamara said.

"What do you mean, it worked?" Kenny asked her, "You never tried travelling through the network before?"

"I have." Tamara answered, "But not along with another person."

"Get off me!" the guy they knocked down shouted, shortly before pushing them off himself.

Once they got off him, the guy stood up. It was the same man who visited the humanoid turtles in the sewers earlier.

Kenny seemed to recognize him: "Don't I know you?"

The man turned to look at Kenny: "If you do, you'd be the first."

Somehow, despite the monotonous sound of the man's voice, there was a hint of agitation in it as well. Or was it because of how the black spots on the man's face formed. To Kenny, they resembled inkblots, but there was a moment where the inkblot resembled the face of an angry man. That's when it hit Kenny. With this man's face shifting into inkblots, it reminded him of a well-known psychiatrist, who's known for showing inkblots to people as a form of psychological evaluation. Once he remembered the psychiatrist's name, he knew the man's name as well.

"You're Rorschach?" Kenny asked him.

The man, Rorschach, didn't answer, rather he grumbled.

"Who's Rorschach?" Tamara wondered.

"A vigilante, who was last seen in the mid-eighties." Kenny explained.

"If that's the latest you've heard of me, then I've been doing well to be inconspicuous." Rorschach reacted.

"Wait a minute, if he was last seen then, how could you know about him?" Tamara asked.

"With a super-heroine for a girlfriend, you'd start looking into more like her." Kenny answered, "This one kinda stuck on me, as he disappeared in the year I was born."

"So you were born in the year we had two presidents at the same time." Rorschach spoke.

"Yeah, just a few years before the third World War ended." Kenny added.

Rorschach growled: "Too bad I wasn't there to see Veidt's established world peace fail."

"Er... excuse me." Tamara interrupted, "Aren't we drifting off here?"

"Oh, right." Kenny remembered, "You were searching for a blue light."

"What's it to you?" Rorschach asked in return.

"We think there's something more to it than that." Tamara answered.

"That's it?" Rorschach questioned.

"Look, we already wasted enough time talking about the past." Kenny reminded him, "So we don't have time to answer all your questions. Why are you looking for this blue light?"

"I've seen it in the news about the Pyrenees." Rorschach explained, "Then I heard about a homicide here in the city, where two were killed in the strangest circumstances, upon which that same light was seen."

"Two here?" Tamara sounded surprised, "So along with those in Europe and Asia..."

"That makes just one left." Rorschach interrupted.

Neither Tamara or Kenny understood this: "One left? What do you mean?"

"The four that died were part of a group, that consisted out of five." Rorschach explained, "Four of the five are dead, which leaves just one guy, who lives in Africa."

"You seem to know these people quite well." Kenny said.

Rorschach growled again: "They called themselves the Planeteers."

Tamara and Kenny looked at each other, both raised their shoulders, upon which Kenny remarked: "Never heard of them."

"Doesn't surprise me." Rorschach replied, "Everyone who's met them would rather forget they ever did."

"Then why do you care?" Tamara asked him.

"That's personal." Rorschach answered, "But what I can say that each of them had a ring, each of which held a special power. With all four of the victims, the rings were taken away."

"What kind of power?" Tamara asked.

"Let's just say that... in the wrong hands, it could be dangerous." Rorschach explained.

"Then I suppose we should find this man as soon as possible." Tamara decided.

"How? We don't even know who or what we're facing?" Kenny remarked.

"The only ones who've seen this killer are dead now." Rorschach added.

Tamara thought about this, then came up with a solution: "There may be someone who can help us."

"Who would that be?" Kenny asked her.

"I don't know." Tamara answered, "There have been rumors about someone being able to bring the dead back to life."

"But you don't know who it is." Rorschach remarked.

"No." Tamara admitted, "I know somebody who might. But..."

"But what?" Kenny asked her.

"Well, he lives in the Seattle suburbs." Tamara explained, "But I've used too much of my magic to transport ourselves back there."

Kenny sighed: "Even magic has it's downsides."

"I know a way to get there fast enough." Rorschach told them, "Follow me."

He made to leave, before either Tamara or Kenny could ask him anything. But neither one of them thought they should question this any further, so they followed him.


	6. Chapter 6

Rorschach escorted the two of them... from one street into another. All until they finally reached what looked like a small yellow airplane.

"What is that?" Kenny wondered.

"It's the Planeteers' vessel." Rorschach answered, "They've used it for a time to go all around the world. These days, more for this one American guy's own errands."

"Dare I ask what kind of errands?" Tamara asked him.

"I would answer if I knew." Rorschach replied, "All I know is that I've seen it flying around here before."

"And does anyone happen to know how to fly it?" Kenny asked.

Rorschach growled, shortly before pushing a button, which opened a door: "Do you want to get in Seattle, or not?"

Kenny appeared surprised that Rorschach would know at least this much, but shook it off: "What do you think?"

"Do we have a choice?" Tamara argued, upon which she entered, before Kenny decided to go along.

Once all three of them were seated and had their seat belts fastened, Rorschach took the controls, raised the machine off the ground, then shot it into the skies, on it's way to Seattle.

Inside the shuttle, not much of a conversation was going on. Tamara, for one, wasn't impressed by what she saw outside the window, Rorschach was too busy controlling the vessel, and Kenny was deep into thoughts. After some time, he decided to share his thoughts.

"You know what I find to be strange?" he asked, to nobody in particular.

Tamara looked at him, though she didn't appear interested, but would do anything to get rid of her boredom: "What is it, Kenny?"

"From whatever little information I have found on Rorschach, I do remember they mentioned a date of birth. It was somewhere in the forties."

"Really?" this did surprise Tamara, "That's not possible. That would mean that this thing is controlled by somebody who's near his seventies."

"An age at which your sight should be weakening, among other things." Kenny agreed, "But here he is, in perfect condition."

"He wouldn't be one of those 4400 people?" Tamara wondered, "I mean, how long has he been gone? Twenty years?"

"Twenty-five." Kenny corrected her, "But they've been back since 2004, and for as far as I know, Rorschach was never seen or heard of until now."

"But his hearing hasn't weakened ever since." Rorschach started, discontent with the fact that the other two acted as though he weren't there.

"But he did raise an interesting point." Tamara replied.

"I am sure he did." Rorschach said, "He, who appeared out of the computer I used, along with a witch girl, neither of whom I know, yet seem to know much about me. I just made two interesting points."

Any other person would be annoyed, but Kenny didn't appear so: "Of course. What am I thinking."

"What?" Tamara couldn't understand.

"It wouldn't fair, right?" Kenny questioned, "That we'd demand an explanation from our pilot, while we haven't told him much about ourselves."

"Keep that thought." Rorschach told them, "We've arrived."

The vessel landed on what appeared to be an open enough clearing for a flying machine like this. On top of that, the clearing is surrounded by trees, so anyone who pass it by would notice what's parked there. It is here that the three leave the vessel and start looking for this person that Tamara mentioned.

They made it to a diner called "Der Waffle House". Inside, there was only one table taken, by one old man, who appeared to be around his forties, fifties at the most. That was the man that Tamara spoke about, as she came to him and sat herself opposite him. At first one would say that he didn't notice her, as he kept his face behind the newspaper he was reading.

"Tamara Riley." the man spoke, "You're still here."

"You sound so disappointed." Tamara replied, "Don't I make your job easier, Rube?"

The man, Rube, put down his paper: "Easier? One dead person that's still walking around. You are disturbing the balance here. As are you, K. Tam!"

That last bit was addressed to Kenny, who looked surprised: "Er... I'm just guessing, but you're not just another guy, are you?"

"He's a Reaper." Tamara said.

"So Peanut wasn't kidding when she said she couldn't claim you." Rube continued.

Rorschach slammed his hand on the table, right before he grabbed Rube's shirt and picked him up: "You say you're a Reaper, but look like just another guy to me."

"Rorschach, that's enough!" Kenny tried to stop him.

"We came here, because we want to know something." Rorschach told Rube.

"Hey you two!" one of the waitresses called, "You better take this outside!"

Kenny tried to come between the two: "Rorschach, this isn't New York. There are easier ways to find this... Tamara, who are we looking for again?"

"Someone who can bring the dead back to life." Tamara replied.

"You looking for the Pie-maker?" Rube questioned.

This sounded funny to Kenny: "The Pie-maker?"

"Yeah." Rube continued, upon which Rorschach let him go, "I heard about claimed souls often returning to their bodies, for unknown reasons, but then returning to back to where they wer before. Most of them recognized the man who brought them back as some pie-maker."

"Do you know where we can find him?" Tamara asked him at last.

Rube hesitated for a moment, but that's when Rorschach grabbed Rube's throat: "You may be a Reaper, so does that mean you can't feel pain?"

"All right!" Rube told him, "I'll tell!"


	7. Chapter 7

Going by what Rube told them, the three set out to find this Pie-maker, who owned his own shop that was, apparently, called "The Pie Hole". When they made it there, neither one of the three could keep their opinions to themselves about this situation.

"Oh, I get it. As in shut your pie hole." Tamara remarked sarcastically.

"First a waffle house, now a pie-shop." Kenny laughed, "What's next? A pizza place?"

"I don't know if this is because I'm from New York, but does every city has so much color?" Rorschach wondered.

"Well, in any case, this is closed." Tamara noticed.

"Surely, that doesn't stop folks like us, does it?" Kenny questioned.

"Entering is easy." Rorschach said, just before he went to the front door.

He spent a few seconds doing... whatever he was doing at the lock, causing it to unlock itself and thereby open the door.

"What did you do?" Kenny asked him.

"What's it look like?" Rorschach asked in return, as he opened the door more widely.

"Honestly?" Kenny replied, "Like you didn't use anything to force the lock."

"Maybe it wasn't locked." Tamara deduced.

"Yes it was." Rorschach corrected her, just as he entered.

"He's... weird." Tamara remarked, "Even to us."

Kenny merely shrugged, as he followed Rorschach inside, with Tamara right behind him.

Just as they entered, they saw that the kitchen lights were still on, which meant that somebody was still finishing up some work. Whoever that somebody was, he had heard the door open, which surprised him, as he was sure he had locked it, and the only other people who had an extra key were either asleep, or dead.

"Who's there?" he shouted.

"You're in no position to ask us questions." Rorschach replied.

Rorschach entered the kitchen, where the man could have a better look at Rorschach's face, where he could see the black spots shifting, which had him intimidated.

"Tell him what his face looks like." Kenny asked the man.

The man didn't know how to reply to that.

"You're suddenly in a better mood." Tamara remarked.

"Guess I have less reasons to be frustrated now." Kenny told her.

The sight of one man with a strange face, another with long dark trench coat, and a young woman dressed to look like a femme fatale, the man wasn't sure what to think.

"Are you this famed Pie-maker?" Rorschach asked him.

"Er... yes." the Pie-maker answered, "But the shop's closed now."

"Well, count yourself lucky we didn't come for your pies." Kenny assured him.

"I'm sorry?" the Pie-maker couldn't understand.

"We've been told that you can raise the dead." Tamara cut to the chase.

The Pie-maker looked vaguely surprised, but changed his face back to a neutral expression: "You've been wrong informed."

"Have we?" Tamara questioned, "We'll see about that."

She came closer to the Pie-maker, raising her hand to touch his face, while the Pie-maker himself took a few steps back, clearly intimidated by Tamara's appearance. He couldn't go much further at some point, as there was a table right behind him, which he hit as Tamara got close enough to touch him.

"Wait!" Kenny interrupted, "Are you sure it's even safe for you?"

Tamara started to turn agitated: "Why would it not be? I touched you and nothing happened."

"That's not what I mean." Kenny explained, "If this guy can bring dead things back to life, what do you think would happen to people like us? Who are already walking corpses?"

The Pie-maker heard this, upon which a weird expression came to his face, which Rorschach noticed.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Tamara asked in return.

"Alright, enough of that." Rorschach suddenly grabbed the Pie-maker's collar and pulled him away, "Look, we haven't got enough time to argue, so just give it to us straight! Are you this pie-maker who can raise the dead?"

"Are you like me?" the Pie-maker asked Kenny.

"Like... you?" Kenny didn't understand.

The Pie-maker then paused, knowing he had to choose his next words very carefully, then said: "Maybe this'll help you."

He tried to get out of Rorschach's grip, but the latter won't let go.

"Rorschach, I think you can let go now." Kenny told him.

Rorschach growled, but let go of the Pie-maker anyway. With this, the Pie-maker signalled Kenny to follow him into what looked like a freezer.

"People outside of New York are more cooperative." Rorschach remarked.

"You thinking about moving out?" Tamara asked him.

Rorschach didn't answer, but whether that meant "yes" or "no" or that he hadn't decided yet is unclear.

In the freezer, the Pie-maker kept a lot of rotten fruits.

"What is this? You growing bacterias?" Kenny wondered.

"You never tried this before then?" the Pie-maker asked him.

Kenny didn't know whether he should answer this or not, and if he did answer he wouldn't know what to say. Instead he curiously raised an eyebrow, after which the Pie-maker demonstrated what he meant. He picked up one of the rotten fruits, so Kenny could see for himself that the fruit regained it's health.

"That... do you use those in your pies?" Kenny tried to hide his surprise.

The Pie-maker wasn't sure whether to laugh or to explain how his power worked, so instead he told him this: "I can remember the first time I discovered I could do this. I used it to bring my dog back to life, and later my mother."

"Naturally." Kenny replied.

"When did you first found out about your power?" the Pie-maker asked Kenny.

Kenny reacted surprised at first: "What?"

"You said your friend is a walking corpse, so I thought... that wasn't a lie, was it?" the Pie-maker suddenly sounded agitated.

"Oh that." Kenny understood now, "We're both walking corpses actually. But we weren't brought back by someone like you."

"You're not?" this surprised the Pie-maker.

"But never mind that." Kenny suddenly changed subject, "We have a problem on our hands, and we need you to help us interrogate witnesses."

"Me? How?" the Pie-maker wondered, shortly before realizing how that might be, "Are the witnesses dead?"

Kenny nodded, which got the Pie-maker to ask the following question: "But if you and your friend are somehow brought back to life, can't you use whatever you used to come back on them?"

"I was brought back by a crow deity." Kenny answered, "I don't know how that worked. As for Tamara... I'm not sure, you'll have to ask her yourself."

The Pie-maker thought about this for a time: "I don't know... I can't really leave the shop alone."

"It won't be long." Kenny assured him, "Not if you help us speed up some things."

"Alright." the Pie-maker agreed, "But there are some limits to my powers."

"Explain it to us on the way." Kenny interrupted, "Come on."

He left the freezer and the Pie-maker followed. Along with Tamara and Rorschach, they left the shop and headed to the Planeteers' plane.


	8. Chapter 8

The four of them were on the plane, on their way back to New York. While on route, the Pie-maker explained how his powers worked.

"It's like this." he started, "I touch somebody, and he or she is alive again."

"That's it, just touch them?" Tamara sounded disappointed.

"I wish it were." the Pie-maker answered, "I can only keep them alive for one minute. If I keep them alive any longer, anyone who's physically closest to me and has the same life-value, will die instead."

"The same life-value?" Kenny didn't understand that.

"If I bring back a plant, another will die." the Pie-maker explained, "If I bring back an animal, another will die, and if I bring back someone human..."

"In that case, we got nothing to fear." Tamara remarked, "I mean, I'm already dead, so are you, Kenny."

"You're forgetting Rorschach." Kenny reminded her.

"If I minded, you'd have heard me." Rorschach told them.

This would have surprised Tamara and Kenny, and maybe even the Pie-maker, but it didn't. As the Pie-maker is used to weird things, nothing could surprise him any more. As both Kenny and Tamara were dead yet alive, each in their own way, it is possible that the same would go with Rorschach, which would also explain his many years of absence.

"I wouldn't be too sure yet." the Pie-maker said, "I don't know how this will effect people like you. Before tonight, I didn't even know you existed."

"So that means we can't be too careless?" Kenny asked him.

"I wouldn't even want to touch either of you." the Pie-maker added.

"I should hope not." Tamara exclaimed.

"I'm pretty sure he meant casual contact." Kenny reminded her.

"Can't be too sure." Tamara remarked, "Who knows what this kind of thing can do to you. Turn you into a necrophiliac, or..."

"Seriously now, Tamara..." Kenny interrupted her.

"Believe me or not..." the Pie-maker started, "Even if that ever crossed my mind, it doesn't now."

"Oh? Why is that?" Tamara asked, bluntly.

The Pie-maker went silent after that, upon which Kenny spoke to Tamara: "Now you've done it."

"It's alright." the Pie-maker told them, "I... it's just that... I had this... I mean, she was my..."

"What? Who was she?" Tamara kept asking.

Kenny put his hand on Tamara's shoulder, so to draw her attention: "I don't think we should ask about that."

"Thank you." the Pie-maker said, "Kenny, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, and you are?" Kenny asked in return.

"Ned." the Pie-maker answered.

When they arrived in New York, the four didn't hesitate to go to the morgue, where the bodies were kept.

"Are you sure this is the right one?" Tamara asked Rorschach, "I mean, though there's not much left of it, this is a big city."

"But only one morgue has been rebuilt." Rorschach answered, "So there's no other place for them to be."

That's when they arrived at the door, that lead into the storage room for the dead. They went inside, which is when something came to the Pie-maker's mind.

"Hang on, we can just enter without anyone noticing?" he wondered.

"This city that never slept, fell asleep since May last year." Rorschach answered, "Not to many people live here anymore, let alone work here."

"So not enough guards to stay up for the night either." Kenny realized.

"That takes away the meaning of graveyard shift." Tamara sighed.

Manhattan Island:

Inside the room, they looked for the right bodies. Once they found the two, the Pie-maker took this as his queue.

"Okay, we only got one minute for each, so you should ask the right questions, and keep them short."

Everyone nodded, upon which the Pie-maker raised his left hand, where he kept a stopwatch. With his right hand, he pressed the button, so to start the clock, while at the same time he touched the dead body, that being of the North-American man, and he lived again.

"Ma-Ti!" the man shouted as he got up, and was surprised to see where he was.

"What is this? This the morgue?" he asked.

"I'll answer later." Rorschach spoke.

"Who are you?" he asked Rorschach.

"Never mind that." Rorschach interrupted, "Did you see who killed you?"

"If I'm dead, then you must be the angels that collect me." the man said, "But then, why don't you know..."

Rorschach grabbed the man's neck: "Answer my question! Did you see him?"

"Er... yeah! He was an old man, but with some kind of magic powers." the man answered.

"What sort of magic?" Tamara asked.

Once the man saw her, his attention turned away from the question: "Are you an angel? Then I must be in heaven."

"Don't make me have to..." Tamara started, just as the man fell down to the floor.

"What the..." Tamara spoke, just when she noticed that the Pie-maker had his finger raised, with which he put the man back to his dead state.

"Sorry, his time was up." the Pie-maker said.

"Well then bring him back!" Rorschach ordered.

"I can't." the Pie-maker told him, "I can only bring them back once."

"Then let's hope that the other body is more cooperative." Kenny said.

"Maybe he won't have to be." Tamara said, "My magic hasn't restored completely yet, but I think I have enough to see that other man's past. Just like I did when we first met, Kenny."

"It's worth the try." Kenny said.

"Now that you mention it..." the Pie-maker just realized, "... don't you have the power to bring back the dead?"

"Not really." Tamara answered, "I mean, I had to will someone to bring me back, and that someone died trying to revive me. That's how it works. I can't revive anyone without killing myself."

"Who ever said that death is easy?" Kenny remarked.

"I say we've lost enough time joking around." Rorschach reminded everyone, "Let's do this already."

With that said, whatever the Pie-maker did with the North-American man, he did the same with the South-American man, so he lived again. Once he was alive, Tamara touched his face, so she saw his past, specifically the last few moments of his death.


	9. Chapter 9

The facts are these:

The South-American man was called Ma-Ti, who along with the North-American, or Wheeler, made part of a group of youngsters who tried to save the world. But in the past 15 years, these two, as well as the other three members of their group haven't had much contact anymore. However, believing that world may still have need for them, the five had kept their rings, rather than returning them to one of Earth's spirits, who called herself Gaia. Doing so, Ma-Ti, who has a more sentimental heart and strength, could sense it when something was wrong with the other team members, which was why he had contacted Wheeler, so they could meet in New York. As the city was still under construction, they didn't think they'd be overheard, especially not by whoever it was that hunted them. Or so they thought. Somehow, their hunter had found them, attacked them, and eventually killed them. There's not much that they know about this man that attacked them, so the only information that could be provided was the fact that the man was old, had a strange form of a French accent, and he had a blue stone which was humanoid in shape and was the very source of that blue light.

Once Tamara took that much information, the Pie-maker put Ma-Ti back to death, upon which Tamara explained to everyone what she saw.

"That fits the painting I saw." Kenny spoke, "So I guess we now have an idea of what this man looks like."

"But I can't understand." the Pie-maker started, "What's so important about these rings?"

Tamara was about to explain, but Rorschach beat her to it: "Four of them could summon four of the elements. Water, earth, wind and fire. While the fifth would summon all the good in living creatures."

"So what would a bad man want with them?" the Pie-maker asked.

"Because when those combine, they'd become this one powerful entity." Rorschach continued, "Which could be powerful enough to destroy an entire planet."

"That doesn't sound good." was all the Pie-maker could say.

Tamara, who had been silent for a while, suddenly decided to talk: "You seem to know a lot about them, Rorschach. Too much, as I can't seem to find you in their memories."

"That's personal!" Rorschach roared.

"Never mind that." Kenny interrupted, "So four of them are already dead, maybe the fifth one is too by now."

"We don't know that." the Pie-maker said.

"But we'll have to assume so." Kenny said, "We could waste our time trying to find this fifth member, only to find him dead and give our enemy enough time to reach Gaia. No, it's best if we know more about this man first, so we can track him down instead."

"According to Ma-Ti, this man had a strange French accent." Tamara said, "So our best guess is to look for him in France."

"France is not the only place in the world where people speak French." the Pie-maker reminded her.

"No, but his accent wasn't even Canadian French, so he can't be local either." Tamara reasoned.

"But what are we going to do when we get there?" the Pie-maker wondered, "I mean, what do we tell them? That we're a group of people, each somehow associated with death, looking for a magician with a bright blue stone?"

"We're not afraid of exposing ourselves." Tamara said.

"Here in America, I understand, but Europeans aren't half as gullible." Kenny told her, "Not to mention that you may not be afraid, but Ned might."

"In that case, I know exactly who to talk to." Rorschach said.

"You know somebody in France?" the Pie-maker asked him.

"I know someone in Romania." Rorschach replied, "But she's been around long enough to know some things about history that they don't teach you at school."

"Romania it is then." Kenny decided.


	10. Chapter 10

Just when the four were boarding the plane, the morning sun started to rise over the island.

"This'll be weird." Kenny started, "The sun rises now, but in Romania, it'll probably be night already."

"Noon, actually." Rorschach corrected him.

"Either way..." Kenny said, "Their the day is near it's end, while here it's merely beginning."

"I guess we'll find out the meaning of the word jet-lag." the Pie-maker remarked.

"I always wanted to see Europe, but I could never think it would be under these circumstances." Tamara whined.

"Can't deal with the world, then you should've stayed dead." Rorschach said, flatly.

"Look who's talking!" Tamara exclaimed.

"Guys, save your angry fits for when it really matters." Kenny interrupted them.

"Come on now, Kenny." Tamara said, "We've spent hours with this guy, but he won't answer any of our questions. I've had it with him, really."

"You want me to answer your questions?" Rorschach questioned, though his face didn't seem like he was willingly cooperating, "Do you?! I'll answer them."

"Good!" Tamara sounded relieved, "What is..."

"Once we're on our way." Rorschach interrupted her, as he went inside the plane.

"Where did you find this guy?" the Pie-maker asked Kenny and Tamara.

"Internet." Kenny answered.

Bucharest, Romania, November 13th 2010, 15:36:

Selene had sat herself on top of a church tower. It wasn't the first time she sat there either, though sitting there, not did she remember the first time she did that, but also the exact circumstances which brought her there. She, along with others like her, was stalking a group of people, the ones she knows as the lycans. Little did she know at the time that this particular stalk is what would change her life completely. She met the love of her live, she betrayed her own race, stopped the war between two species,... but altogether even stopped living. Although the life she lived was mostly based upon the lie that lycans killed her family, it still became her life to search and kill. Now that that life is over, she's settling down with her loved one, who was only newly introduced into this war, therefor the end couldn't come too soon for him. And although he loved her, he may never fully understand how she felt about this sudden end.

Over the Atlantic

As they were on route, Rorschach explained a thing or two about the person they were about to see: "Her name is Selene."

"The moon goddess?" Kenny asked.

"No." Rorschach ansered, "She's a vampire, that's been around for many centuries."

"A vampire?" the Pie-maker asked, "I know I've seen the strangest of things, and you guys aren't exactly... anyway, a vampire?"

"If you've seen what I saw, nothing would surprise you anymore." Kenny told him, "Unless the vampire turned out to be fake."

"I was skeptic at first too." Rorschach said, "But I've seen her drink blood, and I've seen how fast she heals of mortal wounds. Wounds that nobody could possibly even survive."

"How do you know her anyway?" Kenny asked him.

"This is where I answer how I know so much about the Planeteers too, isn't it." Rorschach growled.

"At last." Tamara sounded a little more pleased than usual.

"What do you already know about me?" Rorschach asked.

"Other than what I already said..." Kenny answered, "... just what was shown in that movie from last year."

"They made a movie about him?" Tamara asked.

"More about him and his friends from way back when." Kenny answered, "It suggested that you were blown to bits by Dr. Manhattan, somewhere in Antarctica."

"That indeed happened." Rorschach answered, "But I guess Oysterman, as that was his real name, is not used to hearing people begging him to kill them. I guess I'm the first one who confused him, so he made a slight mistake when he blew me up."

"Anyone else is creeped by how lightly he's taking this?" the Pie-maker asked.

"Not really." Tamara answered.

"And what mistake did this... Manhattan make?" Kenny asked him.

"He blew up my body, but didn't kill me." Rorschach answered, "Somehow, though all my cells were split up, they didn't die. What was worse is that the cold of Antarctica preserved my cells, instead of killing them."

"Isn't that a good thing?" the Pie-maker asked, "I mean, you don't want to die, right?"

Rorschach sighed: "You try and stay there and not wishing you could die."

"So what happened then?" Kenny asked.

"The Planeteers." Rorschach answered, "They came to visit the South Pole. In doing so, some of my frozen cells stitched themselves to their clothes, so once they left the cold of Antarctica, my cells unfroze themselves."

"So what then?" Tamara asked, "I'm not a biologist, but if your cells were... split up, they couldn't do much. You couldn't do much."

"Thank you for rubbing that in." Rorschach replied, "I can remember the times I spent in this plane, just because I couldn't get out without any help."

"That why you know so much about them." Kenny understood, "You were watching them the whole time, and they didn't know it."

"Yes." Rorschach answered.

"So... how did you... I mean... how did you er..." the Pie-maker tried to ask him.

"Reassemble myself?" Rorschach explained, "I improvised. When Oysterman's had his accident, which turned him into Dr. Manhattan, his knowledge of astro, nuclear, quantum and other physics is what got him to restore himself. I don't have that knowledge, so I was on my own."

"Is that why you wear that mask?" Tamara asked him, "So nobody would see your failiure to..."

"No, miss Riley." Rorschach interrupted her, "This 'mask', as you call it, is my face!"

He turned his head to look at the other three. The inkblot on his face took a new form, however this time there was no mistaking it. It took the shape of a man's face.

Kenny was the first to recover: "Well that explains it."

"So... what can you do?" the Pie-maker asked.

"Other than shaping my face as I want to..." Rorschach answered, "I'm stronger than I was before, I can let a bullet go right through me, but even if one hits me it won't kill me."

"That's it?" Kenny was surprised, "I thought Dr. Manhattan could do more than that."

"He could. But I'm not Dr. Manhattan, remember?" Rorschach reminded him.

After this, Kenny went silent.

"Where does that Selene woman come in?" the Pie-maker remembered.

"As I said, the Planeteers carried me around, and when they arrived in Europe I could start trying to reassemble." Rorschach explained, "When I did, I stayed in Europe for a while, trying to piece together how much time had passed since I've been in Antarctica, what had happened in the meantime,..."

"Which would explain why no one's seen you in years." Kenny interrupted, "No one that I know of anyway."

"Exactly." Rorschach answered, "Once I had everything sorted out, I needed to return to New York. The only problem, since I've been gone for so long, and some of the rules had been changed, it became difficult for me to enter the States without being noticed. That's where Selene came in."

"She smuggled you in?" the Pie-maker asked.

"She helped me get in." Rorschach replied, "And let's leave it at that."


	11. Chapter 11

Africa:

The old man with the blue light stood over a native, whom he had just killed. Upon having done that, he took off the man's ring. With this, he had all five of them collected. The man then tried to put the rings on. Putting them on was easy, but somehow he didn't feel much stronger. So he uses his blue rock again, which was still put onto his walking stick. He waved it over the five rings, making an incantation in the mean time. Doing so, he suddenly realized what to do next. Since the rings won't unleash their powers on him just yet, he'd have to find their very source, and see if there's any other way to unleash them.

Bucharest, Romania:

Rorschach was ready to land the plane, but from where he sat, he could see a shadow on a church tower. It could have been a statue, as it remained stationary, safe for the fact that it appeared to be wearing a long coat, which moved in the wind. He was about to ignore it, but then the Pie-maker saw the shadow too.

"What is that?" he wondered, "Somebody's about to jump."

"Not our problem right now." Tamara said, flatly.

"How can you say that?" the Pie-maker asked her.

"If somebody wants to die, then who are we question that?" Rorschach told him.

"I don't understand you." the Pie-maker remarked, "We've come here to save the world, yet you wouldn't stop to save just one life."

"If we fail it won't matter." Tamara answered.

"Kenny, back me u..." the Pie-maker turned to Kenny, but he wasn't in his seat, "Where did he go?"

Tamara only then noticed too: "I know that crow gives him powers, but to vanish like that?"

"I think I know where he is." Rorschach reacted, as he pointed to that tower, where there were suddenly two shadows visible.

On top of that tower, Kenny approached a woman, of whom he's yet to realize that she's the very one he and his companions were looking for, Selene.

"Why are you doing this?" Kenny asked her.

Selene turned to look at him: "An American. What brings you here?"

"That's not important." Kenny answered, "What matters right now is why you're here."

"I needed time to think." Selene answered, as she got off the ramp, "Why are you here?"

"Wait, so you weren't about to jump?" Kenny asked her.

Selene chuckled: "You have no idea of what I am, do you?"

Meanwhile, Rorschach had gotten close enough to the tower, so he could see and recognize Selene.

"That's the one we were looking for." Rorschach said.

"See?" the Pie-maker remarked, "If he hadn't stopped her..."

"She's a vampire." Rorschach interrupted, "If she jumped, she'd still be alive!"

The Pie-maker decided he shouldn't say more. Upon his sudden silence, Selene decided to jump unto the plane. With her suddenly there, Rorschach decided to open the door for her.

"Hmp..." he growled, "The door's not even open, and somehow that crow guy got out."

"How?" the Pie-maker asked.

"A crow tends to find it's way in and out of places..." they heard Kenny answer, "... without anyone noticing."

"You?" Selene had only just entered the plane, where she met Kenny again.

"We can try to figure out how I did what I just did..." Kenny decided, "... or you can tell us what we need to know."

"You already told her about the blue light?" Tamara asked.

"And what those dead bodies have in common." Kenny added.

"That was fast." Tamara remarked.

Rorschach, while trying to land the plane, asked Selene: "What do you know about this light?"

"Just what I saw a few hundreds of years ago." Selene answered.

"Hundreds of years ago?" Tamara questioned.

"For the moment, better than nothing." Kenny reasoned.

"What did you see back then?" the Pie-maker asked her.

"It was in the Ardennes." Selene started, but the place she mentioned didn't mean much to anybody, so she added: "It's in Wallony."

This did sound familiar, so Selene could continue: "Back then, I happened upon an old man, who called himself an alchemist. He was experimenting with a creature. I don't know for certain if or how his experiments failed or succeeded, but I do remember that his own castle exploded, revealing only this blue light."

"But that was hundreds of years ago." the Pie-maker remarked, "That alchemist couldn't be alive now, can he?"

"I'm dead and still walking." Tamara remarked.

"I've seen two men who're supposed to be dead for years." Kenny added, "Not counting myself."

"And I've been here for over a thousand years." Selene told them.

"And this alchemist, what do you know about him?" Kenny asked her.

"Only his name and reputation." Selene answered, upon which nobody needed to ask her the name of said alchemist before telling them: "Gargamel."

"Him?" Tamara questioned.

"You know him?" the Pie-maker asked her.

"Every witch knows that story." Tamara replied, "He's an old man, who spent his final years mostly on chasing little blue creatures."

This rang a bell to Kenny. He remembered that the old man he saw held a blue rock, that was shaped to look humanoid.

"So what are you saying?" Kenny asked out loud, "That this Gargamel experimented on one of these little blue creatures?"

"What do we know about these creatures?" Rorschach asked the women.

"Not much." Selene answered, "Legend has it that they lived in an enchanted village that would keep people from finding it."

"And it is said that they have a very long life-expectancy." Tamara answered, "five to six hundred years."

"That explains it." Kenny realized, "He must have somehow found a way to turn one of these creatures into his source of power. Something that would make him stronger, and give him a longer durability."

"It would also explain why he's been killing those people." Rorschach added, "If those blue things' life-expectancy is only a few hundred years, then that means that old Gargamel's time is running out."

"But why doesn't he just capture another one of these things?" the Pie-maker questioned.

"An interesting point." Rorschach had to admit.

"Maybe he's tired of temporary solutions." Tamara suggested, "Maybe he wants something more permanent."

"Rorschach." Kenny turned to him: "Who gave these Planeteers their rings?"

"Gaia." was Rorschach's short answer.

"Those rings..." Tamara realized, "Since they belong to her, it would be easy for someone like him to find her."

"What are we still standing around here for?" the Pie-maker wondered, "We should go and help her!"

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Rorschach asked, "Even beneath the Earth's surface, there's enough room for anyone and anything to disappear in. And even if we knew where to look for her, we couldn't get there with what we have."

"Tamara?" Kenny turned to her, "Can you feel her presence, like you felt mine?"

"I think so." Tamara answered, "But I never tried looking for anything under ground."

That's when the crow spoke to Kenny: "Let her borrow some of yours. It could help."

Kenny looked at his own hands, then did as was suggested: "Maybe I could help."

He stretched out his hands to her. Tamara wasn't sure of what to think, but she took his hands into hers. With the sudden combined efforts of her magic, however little was restored, and the strength of the crow, Tamara could start roaming the underground world.


	12. Chapter 12

Back in Africa, a shuttle arrived. This shuttle, however, differs from any one that humans have ever laid their eyes on. For one, it's made for underground travelling, for another it's not of human creation. So from a station within the hollow Earth, this shuttle was launched to the surface. Once it arrived, a door opened, allowing a green creature, which was about half the size of an average human, had wings, and was geared up with what would look like, to human standards, futuristic weapons. Once this little creature was out, it contacted it's base.

"Foaly, I'm at the site." it spoke.

"Good." the one on the other side replied, "Any sign of what's causing that ruckus?"

"Not yet." the creature answered.

It used a scanner on his helmet, hoping he'd get any wiser through that machine instead.

"This is weird." it said, "How can someone unleash so much magic and then just disappear?"

"Whoever it is, he must be much..." the one on the other side started.

"He must be what?" the creature suddenly sounded amused.

"Nothing." he insisted, "Just carry on."

"Smarter than you?" the creature asked.

"Impossible!" the one on the other side exclaimed.

"That's what you said about that Irish mudboy too, didn't you?" the creature laughed.

"He's still no match for me! Everyone knows that!" he kept shouting.

As he kept ranting on about the subject, the creature hears something. He turns to look, only to be faced by a man with a blue shining stone. One look at the stone suddenly had the creature mesmerized, upon which it froze.

"You are now under my command." the man with the stone, whom we can now refer to as Gargamel, spoke, "You will bring me to wherever I want with this machine."

The creature nodded, as it went back inside the shuttle, upon which Gargamel followed.

"What's going on up there?" the one on the other side inquired, but received no reply, "Respond! What's happening!?"

In Romania, Tamara was able to find the Earth spirit Gaia. Upon doing so, she opened her eyes again.

"We've got a problem." she said.

"What is it?" the Pie-maker asked her.

"The good news is that I know where Gaia is." Tamara answered, "The bad news is that she lives underground."

"How deep?" Selene asked her.

"Too deep." she replied.

"So unless we have some kind of vessel that could take us down there, we've got a problem." the Pie-maker deduced.

"You think?!" Tamara spoke with a sarcastic tone.

"Rorschach." Kenny turned to him, "How about some your friends? I mean, Nite Owl had his special equipment, the Comedian's supposed to be well-connected, Dr. Manhattan can teleport us, or maybe..."

"Dead, dead, missing." Rorschach interrupted, "And if you wanted to mention Silk Spectre, she died along with Nite Owl."

"There may be a way." Tamara spoke.

"What is it?" Kenny asked her.

"Remember when I transported us to New York over the internet?" she asked him in return.

"Yeah. Why?" Kenny wondered.

"I think I can transport us in the same way from here to Gaia." she answered.

"You think?" the Pie-maker questioned.

"I've transported someone from Vancouver to Seattle before." Tamara responded, "But I've never transported anything over greater distances."

"But you've just restored your powers from our last trip." Kenny reasoned, "Maybe it's best if you borrow my strength again."

"Along with mine." Rorschach brought up, "If Oysterman gave me powers similar to his, I should be able to do the same, I just don't know how."

"That still sounds risky." the Pie-maker responded.

"At this point, it's better than nothing." Kenny said, "The only other choice we have is to look for a digging machine back in the States, of which it's existence is only rumored. Either we waste time looking for that, or we use the means we know we have."

"And you don't have to come with us, if you don't like it." Tamara added.

"No." the Pie-maker responded, "I've come this far, I want to see it through."

"Are you sure about that?" Rorschach asked him.

"Other than my shop that's not running very well, I don't have much to lose." the Pie-maker responded, "Not anymore."

Selene seemed to be amused: "I've been itching for a fight for the past couple of years. Looks like I found myself one."

"One witch, one vigilante, one vampire, one... I suppose necromancer is the right word, and one crow." Kenny spoke, "I've seen stranger combinations."

"First, we should stop by my house, to pick up some things." Selene suggested, "Just in case."


	13. Chapter 13

Beneath the Earth's surface:

The shuttle which Gargamel high-jacked ended up somewhere far below. Below the world where even the shuttle itself came from. Once it arrived, Gargamel got out, ordered the pilot to return to where he came from, waited for it to leave, then turned to the place where he ended up. It looked like one of those rooms you may find in ancient Greece, Rome, or any of these ancient cities. And in the centre of it, he sees the woman he was looking for.

"Are you the one who made these rings?" he asked her.

"They can only be used by those who are pure." Gaia replied.

"I am pure." Gargamel argued, "I'm am purely interested in getting stronger."

"That's not the purity I meant." Gaia explained.

"Then I'll have to do something about that, won't I?!" Gargamel replied, upon which he raised his blue rock, ready to fight.

Gaia did not take much of a defensive position. Instead, she raised her hands, working some magic together, thinking it will be enough to repel his powers.

Selene's Mansion:

The plane flew to the mansion, where it landed near it's garage, through which the five of them entered. Once inside, Selene guided them to the storage room, where she kept her weapons. In there, she opened all lockers, revealing the arsenal she kept, which was altogether enough to make even the world's gravest terrorists jealous.

"You... who's your enemy?" the Pie-maker asked.

"Does not matter now." Selene answered, "Just take what you need."

As Selene took all the guns she could carry, Tamara snorted: "I got enough with my magic."

"Which isn't always reliable." Kenny remarked, "Best be prepared for the worse."

Rorschach was the only one who didn't seem to be impressed by any of this. That was until he found what looked like a medical kit, of which all the tools were stained with dried blood. For some reason, it attracted to him.

"I... I don't know about this, guys." the Pie-maker stuttered.

"You best take a small one to start with." Selene remarked, as she handed him one handgun, "Just hold it with both hands when you shoot."

The Pie-maker looked at it, suddenly noticing something peculiar about the gun he held: "Is this silver?"

"Do you really want to hear the story, or do you want to save the world?" Selene asked him in return.

"This looks interesting." Kenny suddenly noticed a long sword. To anyone else it would have been too heavy to lift up, but since Kenny isn't like any other person, he had no trouble at all.

"What's going on here?" somebody asked, speaking Romanian rather than English.

Selene turned, but didn't need to see the face to know who was talking: "Michael..."

"Friends of yours?" Michael asked her.

The two of them continued their conversation, speaking in a language which the remaining four didn't understand. Still, given the agitation in their voices and the way the seem to react to one another, often even touch one another, it suggested that the two were together.

"She's not risking their relationship for this, is she?" the Pie-maker wondered.

"If so, it doesn't sound like they have much of one." Tamara decided.

"You think so?" Kenny questioned, "Then you've never seen Tess and me."

This, Tamara didn't understand: "I thought you two were close."

"We are... were... I mean..." Kenny got confused, "Being dead makes you lose sense of past and present."

"You mean you had some fights with her as well?" the Pie-maker asked.

"Even before we got together." Kenny admitted.

"Sounds a lot like Chuck and me." the Pie-maker whispered.

"Chuck? Who's he?" Tamara asked.

"SHE is called Charlotte, but... I always... called her Chuck..." at that moment, the Pie-maker seemed to have some difficulty in talking.

"Those two are wrapping up." Rorschach reminded them, "You better be ready."

"I think I got what I need." Kenny said, as he held up his sword.

"Oh sure, be the knight in shining armor." Tamara was being sarcastic.

Michael said something, at a lower tone than earlier, upon which he left the room, and Selene turned back to the rest.

"You alright?" the Pie-maker asked her.

"Never mind me. You got everything?" Selene asked them.

Tamara quickly picked up some kind of sharp edged circles, which appeared similar to the ninjas' tri-stars: "I'd rather use something I can use over and over again."

"These torture tools will do fine." Rorschach spoke.

"Torture tools?" the Pie-maker sounded shocked to hear him say that.

"No doctor in the world would leave his tools here like this. Unclean and rusting." Rorschach explained.

"Well, I suppose that settles it." Kenny spoke, "Let's go see Gaia."

Kenny puts his hand in Tamara's hand, while Rorschach puts his hand into her other. But before she did anything, she turned to Selene and the Pie-maker.

"What are you two waiting for?" she asked them, "Grab hold of me."

Neither one of the two understood, so she explained: "I don't know if this'll work at all, but if it does, I have to be sure I'm taking you with me.

"I can't touch you." the Pie-maker replied, "Remember? I don't know what would happen if I do."

"Then hold on to me while I hold on to her." Selene suggested.

The Pie-maker took a step back at that. Having found out that Selene kept weapons in her house, and has all the tools for torture, he didn't feel comfortable near her.

"Ned!" Tamara woke the Pie-maker out of his trance.

Realizing he has no other options, he did as was suggested, and held on to Selene, who held on to Tamara's shoulders.

Upon this, Tamara tried exactly as what was suggested. She borrowed strength and/or power from both Kenny and Rorschach, hoping it would give them enough power to be transported to Gaia's lair. Tamara closed her eyes. Behind her eyelids, she could see the spells from her witching book, upon which she had been relying for years. None of them spoke of doing something so large scale. She had borrowed Kenny's powers before to boost herself, but Kenny's powers belonged to one of the old ones whose powers she uses. In this case, she's borrowing the strength that has a natural basis, rather than supernatural. Still, she remembers how she could touch someone and see their past. It's one of the very first things she could master. She thought of using something similar. As Rorschach said he's become what he was because of some other guy, maybe she can pick up a memory related to him. Which she did, and eventually, she could transport them away.


	14. Chapter 14

Whether the following thoughts went through their head before, after or during the transportation, none of them could know for sure. In which ever case, a thought can come by faster than saying and or writing it in words, in which case a lot of things can go through their heads before either one of them would realise they were thinking it at all.

Selene had to think about the argument she had with Michael. In it, she told him that she was about to go on another fight. Whether it is one that would save the world or not, he didn't seem to care. He did care about the world being saved, but he didn't think I needed to be one of the people to do it. He felt that she had known too many battles in her life, she just needs to adjust to a life without a battle. In a way she was angry, because he can't understand, but she didn't blame him. Michael, before he became what he is now, was a doctor, who took the task of curing or healing people. In this case, he tried to help heal her from her urge to fight. But as soon as that thought came to her mind, Selene realized that she may be corrupting herself for the coming fight, so she shook it off.

The Pie-maker came to the realization that, despite the adventures he had been through, he always avoided battle where he could. So why is he now searching for it? For that matter, why was he so easily calmed down after what he had just heard about Selene? Does nothing scare him anymore? Or does he have a death wish? It wouldn't surprise him if that were the case. Another weakness in his powers is that the people he revives can only come back once. So if he touches something dead, it'll live again, but touch it again and it will be dead... permanently. Long story short, he revived a long lost girlfriend of his, the one he called Chuck, whom he couldn't touch again, knowing it would kill her. It was a strange life style, that nobody could get used to. Not even the Pie-maker, as a time came in which he accidentally did touch her, and she died... again... Meeting with Kenny and Tamara, he half hoped there'd be a chance that Chuck could come back. That was until he learned more details about where they came from. One did it to herself, the other was sent. He wasn't sure what to make of that. Does that mean there is some form of an afterlife? If so that meant that Chuck may still be alive somewhere else. But if it's not the case, it still wouldn't matter, as he'd much rather be dead than having to live without her. But he never had the strength to hurt himself, so if he should die, it would better be for a good cause. About this, he had made up his mind.

Rorschach never did think that the Planeteers were a great group of heroes, or even heroes at all. On the other hand, if it wasn't for them, he'd still be in Antarctica, freezing over, but not dying. And that's not to mention that all of them, while seemingly having best of intentions for the planet, were never really accepted as real heroes. Who can blame them? They tried to stop pollution, but they failed. They were just as misunderstood as he was. He never looked for anyone that some would refer to as like-minded people, but somewhere it did give him a sensation to know that there were other misunderstood people like him. Were, but not anymore.

Tamara was too focused on trying to transport everyone safely, so whatever other thought that went through her mind, she tried to block it, put it in the back of her head,... do anything so she wouldn't have to think about her past.

Kenny remembered high school. He remembered how people tend to look at him as though he was something else. Not a person like him, some THING else, and treated him that way. The only bit of consolation he could find was with his English teacher, to whom he could turn for all his problems, to whom he felt a sort of affection. In his mind he could still see the hallways of the school building, the door behind which he could find the teacher,... that's where it got stranger. Kenny didn't recognize the structure of the building, the people who taunted him. On top of that the aforementioned English teacher was a guy, of whom Kenny was certain he had never seen him before. So even if he could have such feelings for a guy, how could he possibly have any for one he never saw before? Somewhere in these memories, he looked down, but rather than seeing his own body, he saw a female one. That's when he knew it for sure. The memories that he was seeing weren't his. Given his position at the time, he could only assume they were Tamara's. Then the question is, why was he seeing her memories?

Gaia's lair:

Gargamel and Gaia were fighting to the best of their abilities. Gaia was quite powerful, but somehow the combined strength of Gargamel's blue stone and the powers he took from Saint-Nicholas were enough to deflect any of her attacks. But at some point it became clear to Gargamel that Gaia wasn't used to hand-on-hand combat. This he took to his advantage. He kept deflecting her attacks, and in doing so he came closer to her, until he was close enough to beat her with his stick. He kept doing so, until she was too weak to do stop him. This was when he used his blue stone to drain the power that he needed from her. Doing so, made the rings he wore glow, as though whatever power they had were suddenly awakened. A smile crept on Gargamel's face. From here on in, the rest should be easy.

"Earth..." he whispered, but got louder with every next word he spoke: "Fire... Wind. Water! HEART!!!"

Whatever was glowing from the rings were suddenly unleashed into five rays of light. They joined together, as though trying to take a physical form. Gargamel raised his staff, which still held the blue stone, and waved it into the five lights. In doing this, the lights suddenly engulfed him. Gargamel closed his eyes, as he could feel these lights changing him.


	15. Chapter 15

The five arrive at the lair, just in time to see Gargamel, as the lights engulfing him began to change his appearance. His long gray beard grew shorter, started to turn less gray and more black as it did, until there was nothing left. His skin, which showed all signs of old age, started to rejuvenate. His black robe started to become some kind of a spandex suit, similar to what many superheroes wear for clothing, and a oval-shaped object, resembling a map of the world, appeared on his chest, with the blue stone inside it.

"What the..." the Pie-maker whispered.

"I don't know who you are..." Gargamel spoke, "But you're too late. Captain Planet's power is mine now!"

"That's what you were after?" Rorschach spoke, "Captain Planet's powers?"

"Who or what is Captain Planet?" Tamara asked.

"Allow me to introduce him!" Gargamel exclaimed.

"Despite our short distance, he needs to shout his words." Kenny remarked.

"Don't joke!" the crow-deity spoke to Kenny, "Duck!"

Knowing the crow, he would have a very good reason to tell him that, so Kenny shouted to everyone to duck, just as Gargamel had gathered enough energy to shoot at them, but he narrowly missed them.

"What could this... Captain what's-his-name do?" Selene asked Rorschach.

"Anything." Rorschach replied.

The Pie-maker didn't hesitate to get up and start firing his gun. But either the bullets didn't hit him, or they did but he didn't feel anything. At that point, Selene got up, took out her Ingram gun, and shot in Gargamel's direction.

"Missed me." Gargamel snickered.

"Who said I was trying to hit you?" Selene asked him, smiling.

This was something Gargamel didn't understand. Trying to figure that out, he was too distracted when a part of the roof broke loose and fell on him.

"Shooting past him and into the roof." Kenny said, "Very clever indeed."

That's when Gargamel shot out from underneath the rubble: "But not clever enough."

He tried running at high speed to tackle them, but that's when an energy field appeared between him and the other five, stopping him.

"What is this?" Gargamel wondered, as he tried to punch his way through.

Everyone looked around to see where it came from, until they one by one saw Tamara holding out her hands towards the field.

"You're doing this?" Kenny asked her.

"I don't know why." Tamara replied, "I just... suddenly feel more power than ever."

"Interesting..." Gargamel hissed.

At some point, Tamara allowed one of her hands to reach for one of those circular knives she took from Selene's mansion. She turned down the energy field, just so she could throw the knife at Gargamel. The latter was able to catch it, but in doing so, he didn't see it when Kenny had taken out his sword and charged at him. His sword should have penetrated and killed Gargamel, but instead it broke and didn't go through him at all. The knife he caught from Tamara, he slammed it into Kenny's head, then pushed him away. Selene and the Pie-maker tried shooting him, but he ran to them and knocked them away. Just as he knocked, Rorschach took a scalpel out of the torture kit, attacked Gargamel from the back and tried to shove the scalpel into his eye. But the effect was the same as with Kenny when he attacked with the sword.

Speaking of Kenny, Tamara ran to him to take the knife out of his head. Just as she had done that, Gargamel had turned his attention back to her. Tamara raised another energy field, but Gargamel deflected it. She created her own energy wave to shoot at him, but that too didn't work. Once he was within range, she tried the oldest trick known to her, and touched his face. It did seem to do something to him, but not what she expected.

"Trying to control my mind?" Gargamel asked her, just as he grabbed her wrist, "That's not very nice."

Tamara tried again, but only helped him to hold both her wrists at the same time. Suddenly, a shadow leaped up from behind Tamara, tackling Gargamel and pinning him to the floor. Unfortunately, in doing so, Tamara was pulled down along with Gargamel. Both hit their heads, but only Gargamel stayed conscious. It was only then he saw what attacked him.

"You?!" he recognized Kenny, and saw how his head-injury healed.

"You want to get into that?" Kenny joked.

Gargamel had enough of him, so by nodding his head, he somehow caused him to fly away from him. Once he was away, Gargamel stood up, picked up an unconscious Tamara, made a hole appear in the wall closest to him, and with superspeed he dig his way out, long before anyone could try to run to him and stop him.

All of the remaining four only just managed to get up again.

"This is bad." the Pie-maker spoke.

"Will you waste time to make understatements, or shall we figure out how to follow them?" Rorschach asked him.

Selene looked around, then saw Gaia's body. This gave her an idea: "Would she be strong enough to help?"

"How? She's corpse?" Rorschach told her.

The Pie-maker saw where this was going: "Not for long."

He touched Gaia's dead body, upon which she breathed in deeply.

"Thank you." she said to the Pie-maker, "You've just..."

"There's no time." he interrupted, "Can you help us out?"

Somewhat startled by this interruption, she decided these people aren't good to keep in her company, so she made four different energy discs appear.

"Stand on them, and they'll take you up again. Or wherever else you want to go." Gaia explained, "But they'll only work until my change is complete."

"Change?" Kenny asked her, but that's when she passed out.

The Pie-maker didn't understand: "I didn't touch her, she just... died again."

"All the better." Rorschach told him, "Let's use these things."

Rorschach stepped on one of the discs, which started taking him up through the same hole that Gargamel disappeared into.

"How does it know where to take us to?" Kenny wondered.

"For the moment, this'll work for me." Selene spoke, as she followed Rorschach's example.

After her, both the Pie-maker and Kenny did the same thing, leaving Gaia's lair.


	16. Chapter 16

Haddonfield, Illinois, November 13th 2010, 19:23:

Still carrying Tamara's unconscious body on his shoulder, Gargamel arrived back on the surface. He wasn't back in Africa, though. Somehow, by having to take another way out, rather than using the same way in, he ended up miles away from where he started. He could only assume that it had something to do with the direction he took and the distance between the lair and the surface. Where he did end up was something he couldn't guess. It looked like any old suburban house, which wasn't furnished and quite dusty, so it's safe to assume no one's been there for quite some time. Just as Gargamel looked around, his unwilling passenger started to move again. She kicked, punched, tried some of her magic on him, but none of it worked. It only drew his attention.

"You're awake?" he questioned, while he didn't take any effort to put her down or stop her.

He raised his free hand, with which he touched her back, which somehow rendered her unconscious again.

While this was going on, the other four were still travelling back to the surface. Either this happened at such a speed that the dangers you usually encounter on this route didn't effect them, or there was some kind of shield that the energy discs create so they're protected. Which ever the case, there came a moment when Kenny started to feel nauseated, as he began to tremble on his feet, and started to lose velocity. Selene noticed this, so she sped up to catch him.

Once she got him, she asked him: "Are you alright? What's happening?"

"I..." Kenny was barely awake, "I... don't know..."

Back on the surface, Gargamel smiled when Tamara was finally down. He was about to take off again, but that's when he heard something. He turned to look, but saw nothing. He shrugged it off and turned to the window. Doing so, he suddenly stood before a man, wearing dark overalls and a chalk-white mask. Through the mask's eyes, Gargamel could only see darkness staring back at him.

"Get out of my way!" Gargamel told him.

Gargamel was about to push him, but this man blocked his attack, while raising a knife to attack. Seeing this, Gargamel duck down to dodge the attack, put down Tamara, then proceeded to fight this man. He attacked him, but the man dodged every one of his attacks. Still, Gargamel managed to give him one punch that the masked man couldn't dodge, which caused him to fly away, against the wall, then on the floor, seemingly unconscious. Gargamel turned to Tamara to pick her up, but in the corner of his eye, he saw the masked man getting up again.

"Oh!" Gargamel exclaimed, "You're one of those, aren't you? Allow me to give you a hand."

After picking Tamara up again, he punched into the floor, hard enough to cause the entire house to start shaking, to the extent that everything that held it together was weakened, and the house collapsed. Gargamel himself, however, flew through the ceiling, narrowly escaping the crash. He laughed upon seeing this, then flew away to... wherever it is he needed to go.

Shortly after he left, the remaining four reached the surface as well, only to see they've already missed their target.

"He's gone." Rorschach stated.

The Pie-maker looked at the state of the house they just arrived at: "Did he just destroy this house?"

"Captain Planet has a lot of special powers." Rorschach explained, "Strength, speed, flight, telepathy, telekinesis,... his only weakness was pollution, but now that he's merged with this guy, I don't think that'll stop him."

"You sure you're alright now?" Selene asked Kenny out of concern.

"I think so." Kenny told her, but in his mind he turned to the crow, "What happened?"

"Something neither you, me or Tamara expected." the crow answered.

"Tamara?" Kenny questioned, "What does she have to do with this?"

"Quite sexist." Selene remarked, "Taking the small, defenseless female of the group."

"I wouldn't call her defenseless." Kenny reminded her.

"No, but she wasn't as capable of fighting as we are." Selene added.

"You'd be surprised about what some men would do." Rorschach answered.

"Wait, that's an excellent point." the Pie-maker brought up, "Why did he take her?"

"In either case, we have no chance against him now." Rorschach reminded them.

"Not unless we get some help." Selene suggested.

"You know anybody?" the Pie-maker asked everyone.

"We could ask those who controlled that giant robot in Brussels, a few months back." Selene said.

"They won't help." Kenny replied, "They'll say they've had enough excitement."

"How would you know?" Selene asked him.

"Trust me, I know." Kenny answered.

"What about that boyfriend of yours?" Rorschach suggested.

"You've seen him before." Selene replied, "He would hear this, but turn away."

While they were discussing this, the Pie-maker was certain he saw this shape of a man. He blinked with his eyes, but then he was gone. The darkness of the night must be playing with his mind, he thought.

"Even if we can get help, we still don't know where to find him." Selene brought up.

"A man with such powers, he can't really blend in with the crowd." Rorschach brought up, "This man didn't take his time to be subtle, so I'm sure we'll see him on the news soon enough."

"So what now? We go somewhere where we can watch the news?" the Pie-maker asked.

"Best lead we have for the moment." Kenny agreed.


	17. Chapter 17

As they were about to make their leave, Kenny was weak on his feet again. He fell down, before anyone could catch him.

"Kenny?!" Selene exclaimed.

The Pie-maker's first reflex was to go and help, but he reminded himself that he doesn't know the effect his touch may have on him. He started towards him, but changed his mind just as soon.

"Kenny, what's wrong?" Selene asked him, upon which she turns to the other two, "Er... a little help?"

"I... I can't help him." the Pie-maker said.

"He'll get on top of it." Rorschach spoke, "You saw him survive that thing in his head."

"But what if that's exactly what's wrong with him?" Selene questioned.

What not one of them could know was what was happening inside Kenny's head as they were talking about this.

All Kenny could see was black and different shades of grey. Many of these seemed to try and take forms, but it was like once they tried to take one form, they quickly changed. It was similar to how the road and it's surrounding area can seem blurry when you're driving so fast. It was then that he saw one thing that didn't change it's form. It appeared to be a man, flying. He couldn't see too many details about him, but he did recognize the woman he was carrying: Tamara. This made things even stranger. What is this place, and why does he see her? At the same time, what were those voices he kept hearing?

"W... oul... lp him." a vaguely female voice said.

Once Kenny could focus more on that, he could hear the reply: "Th... house looks empt... we cou... ide in th..."

"We're brea...ing in ...ses ...ow?" a third voice spoke.

Kenny sighed: "I'm surprised this doesn't give me a headache."

This is when another figure made it's appearance. A walking skeleton, dressed to look like a cowboy. Skull Cowboy, as Kenny remembered calling him last time he saw him.

"You?" Kenny questioned, "What are you doing here?"

"Do you have any idea how long you were gone?" he asked him.

"Gone?" Kenny didn't understand.

"From the moment you went down that woman, to the moment you returned." the Skull Cowboy clarified.

"I don't know." Kenny answered, "Less than an hour?"

"You were gone for nine hours." the Skull Cowboy told him.

"What?" Kenny was surprised to hear this.

"The one you call Tamara may be powerful, but when it comes to using that Rorschach's strength, she's inexperienced." Skull Cowboy explained, "Using his powers was new to her, so when she transported you, she accidentally took you to another time."

"Then it's a miracle we even got out of that in one piece." Kenny replied.

"Not really." that's when the crow's voice sounded.

Kenny turned to look at him, as the crow continued: "As she had used our powers before, she knew where to hold on to. It was my powers that I granted you that saved you all. But that wasn't without it's side effects."

Kenny was thinking about this. He did remember that when Tamara attacked Gargamel, he had this strange sensation going through him, as if he knew that Tamara tried to distract him, so he (Kenny) could use his sword against Gargamel. Kenny can't really describe what it was, but it was like Tamara had carefully told him her plans, and he acted upon it, except that she didn't say anything at all. Not to mention that Kenny had been feeling rather weak, and here he sees her unconscious.

"Am I inside her head?" Kenny asked the crow.

"Yes." the crow answered.

"A connection was created between you two." Skull Cowboy added, "A connection that benefits both of you. If you recover, she recovers."

That's when some things were starting to become clear to him. For one, Tamara had no trouble using her magic earlier, when she should have been drained of it. For another, the crow did say something happened that wasn't supposed to happen, and that Tamara used his powers mostly to keep people in one piece. Then there's this area, which was strange, but since he already thought that it resembled how blurry a road can look when you're driving, he could draw just one conclusion. That since Tamara's eyes are closed, she couldn't see her surroundings, so there's only the touch, the smell and the hearing left for her to know where she is. But that's when something else came to mind.

"Unfortunately..." Skull Cowboy, "... since it's magic that keeps you connected, it's only magic than can affect both of you, even if only one of you is hit."

"That's why she didn't get a wounded when I got that knife in my head." Kenny realized.

"Yes." the crow replied.

"So she's not out cold for natural reasons." Kenny deduced, "But then the question is, why does he go through all that trouble?"

That's when the scenery started to change. Judging from the way that man that carried Tamara was formed, Kenny could guess he, of whom he's now certain that it's Gargamel, stopped flying. He went deep inside what at this point could only be described as a cave. Though the deeper it went, the more toilet seats began to show themselves. Either she's being carried into a public toilet, or there's a smell that reminded her of that. But as they got deeper, the toilet seats started to take different shapes. There were suddenly desks, similar to the ones you'd find in a science class at high school. Once it had that form, Tamara was put down. When that happened, the floor in the science class started to look less like that of a classroom. Moreover, the floor was made out of sand and rocks. Either this is a school that hasn't been used at all, or it's not a school at all, but a lair. That's when Kenny remembered that Gargamel was an alchemist. In which case, the area seemed to make more sense. Tamara was in Gargamel's lair. Unfortunately, unless she woke up, there wasn't much he could do to find out more. As Kenny realized that much, he saw how something was wrapped around Tamara's neck. At that moment, he didn't know what to do. Was Gargamel trying to hang her up? If so, then why did he go through all the trouble to take her alive? In either case, Kenny had to try and wake her up. He went to her body and tried to touch it. Just he was about to touch her arm to pull her up, Gargamel had taken it first, along with the other arm, put both of them behind her back and wrapped something around those as well. Kenny thought of trying to stop Gagamel, but as his attacks went through him, Kenny remembered he's not really there. Kenny tried something else. Since he's inside her head, he thought he should be able to make her move. He concentrated on making her arms move. As they were being tied together, there wasn't much they could do, but at least he could see if he could at least make her struggle. If he can do that much, he might be able to do more. He concentrated, but nothing happened. He tried again, one time after another. Once Gargamel had started wrapping something around Tamara's waist, Kenny noticed he did manage to make her arm twitch. That was a good start, he thought to himself. He had to keep concentrating, but in doing so he managed to make the voices he heard earlier, but ignored, sound more loudly.

"There is one thing I wonder." one voice, which Kenny recognized as Rorschach, spoke, "How could we possibly lose nine hours?"

"What are you talking about?" the Pie-maker's voice sounded.

"What time was it that we left Romania? Keep in mind that we're seven hours behind Romanian time."

Selene sounded like she could calculate faster: "You're right. We did lose nine hours."

"Maybe that Riley woman didn't know how to use Oysterman's powers." Rorschach deduced.

"So what are you saying?" the Pie-maker wondered, "That we could have saved Gaia and prevented Gargamel from stealing that... that Captain's powers if she hadn't tried what she did?"

"Yes." Rorschach replied.

"So what?" the Pie-maker sounded angry, "You're not gonna help her now?"

"I didn't say that." Rorschach said, "But she's been playing with powers we don't know, and she's played with some that she doesn't know. She's a liability. We have no use for her."

"He's right." Selene agreed, "We can't have her try to stop Gargamel. Not unless we know she has complete control over her powers."

While Kenny did try to block out the voices, he failed doing this. Not only did that mean he heard every word of what they said, it also meant he failed in trying to help Tamara. Once he stopped concentrating, he saw that Gargamel had just finished wrapping something around her feet. He also saw that some kind of a shock went through her binds, of which Kenny could only assume, or hope, that it was some kind of a spell he put on them. After that, Gargamel walked away to one of his desks. Upon that, things started to change into more recognizable forms. For some reason, things were still blurry. But as they slid into focus, Kenny could make out the entire lair. When he looked at Tamara, he saw that she had opened her eyes.


	18. Chapter 18

Tamara looked around. As she was out for the most part, she didn't see what Kenny saw, so to her it took a while before she could register what she was seeing. She saw old wooden tables, which held all kinds of chemicals, judging from the looks of the bottles, the color of the liquids and the scents that they produced. Looking at the walls and the ground, she realized she wasn't in someone's house, but rather in a cave. After some time, she saw a man in a black outfit, whom she recognized as the one that took her, the rejuvenated Gargamel. She thought of getting up to fight him. But as she tried, she couldn't move her body. She could move her arms, but only to a certain extent. It felt as though something was keeping her wrists together. As she pulled, she also felt like she was pulling on her neck, her waist and her feet. She tried stretching her legs, but even that failed. It's like something saw to it that her feet were kept where they were. At the same time, she noticed that every time she tried to move, she heard something clinging. She tried to curl up her body. In doing so, she saw the chains that were wrapped around her waist, and likely the other parts of her body that she couldn't move. Suddenly, there was a loud growl. She looked at Gargamel, of whom she then noticed he was standing at some kind of entry. The lighting was faint, but she could make out something moving there, which if she didn't know any better, looked like a dragon.

"Easy, easy, easy..." Gargamel told it, "Your time will come soon."

That's when Tamara did not hesitate any longer. She tried to work her magic on her chains. But when she, she realized she shouldn't have tried it. Whatever magic she used to try and break the chains, the chains merely absorbed it and sent it back to her. It would look like whatever would be done to the chains, it'll only hurt her.

"You're awake." Gargamel sounded delighted.

"Disappointed?" Tamara tried not to show any fear.

"No." Gargamel replied.

What neither one knew is that Kenny had observed this. He too saw the dragon-like creature, only he recognized it as something different. He remembered the painting where he first saw Gargamel, which had creatures like these on them. So what could they be? Did Gargamel make them? And if yes, what for?

"I want you to be awake to hear this." Gargamel continued to Tamara.

"Hear what?" Tamara asked, "Your master plan? If you tell me that, you'll only be giving my companions enough time to find me."

"Would I?" Gargamel questioned, "They don't even know where to start looking. This cave is uncharted. It would take them long enough to find me."

"So what then?" Tamara wondered, "What are you planning? And what do you need me for?"

"I want you to be my empress." Gargamel answered, flatly.

"What?" Tamara sounded amused.

"You know what these things are in there?" he pointed to where that dragon-esque creature was seen, "They are creatures that have lived under these grounds for many years. Unable to withstand the sunlight, they hid in these caves. One woman who came down there was infected by them, and slowly started to turn into them. And she was beautiful, a real... beauty."

This is the first time that Gargamel started to show different emotions, other than his usual megalomaniac's happiness. It almost looked like grieve.

"I can still see those eyes of hers..." Gargamel seemed to talk more to himself than to anyone else, "Rather than having black dots, she was looking through black crosses."

"You loved her?" Tamara asked him.

That's when Gargamel shook his head: "But then Lucifer came and ruined it all for me."

"Lucifer?" Tamara questioned, "You mean the second sun?"

"At night, we could move freely, but when Lucifer showed itself..." Gargamel went silent after that, "... she was the one woman who listened to me. I don't know what had kept her from trying to infect me, even if she could do it. She was... I never thought I had any need for a woman. I always thought they were the most dangerous creatures in the world. I even created a woman to use against my worst enemies. But she... she didn't fit whatever idea I ever had of women. She was..."

Although he kept raving on like this, Tamara had stopped listening. Not so much because she's not interested, but more because she understood him. She too had this one man in her life that she loved, but she could never get to him.

"You understand, do you not?" Gargamel asked her.

"More than I'd like." Tamara replied.

"Good." Gargamel replied, "Then I know what to do."

He turned away from her, but Tamara still had one question unanswered: "Hey! Wait a minute! That's it?"

"No. Of course not." Gargamel talked back, while searching his tables, "Since you seem to understand, you wouldn't mind if I injected you with her blood."

"What?!" Tamara shouted.

"So you could turn into one of those creatures too." Gargamel replied, "With your magic, you'd find a way to protect yourself from the sun. This way, you can control these things better than I can, and together we can rule this world."

"And what if I can't find a way to protect myself?" Tamara asked him, "What if I can't protect myself from the suns?"

"You will." Gargamel answered, "But in case you don't, with my new found powers, I can black out the suns. Ultimately, someone with such powers, the people will have no choice to bow down to me... er... I mean US! Us, of course."

This sudden moment in which Gagamel had to correct himself meant enough for Tamara. This pointed out a weak spot. This man had a huge desire to rule the world. So this left only one question to Tamara.

"But... why does the world have to turn to you?" she asked.

"Because they deserve nothing better!" Gargamel replied, "I spent most of my life hunting down those wretched... anyway, I was always laughed at, even by other alchemists, about those wretches. But now that I've got this power, everyone will respect me, and I shall make the world suffer as much as they made me suffer!"

"That's it?" Tamara asked him, with a smile on her face, "You just want revenge?"

"You got a problem with that?" Gagamel suddenly stopped looking and turned to her.

"Well, other than you keeping me chained and changing me against my will, yes I have a problem." Tamara replied.

"Like I should care!" Gargamel replied, "You will become mine, whether you want to or not!"

"Oh really?" Tamara questioned, "And I thought you didn't think of us women to be useless creatures anymore. That we're just things who happen to exist. But then, you still need them so they can control your monsters."

"Shut up!" he shouted at her.

"I've dealt with people like you before." Tamara continued, "They too thought I was some kind of toy for them to play with. And guess what, they ended up dead."

Gargamel had heard enough of her. That's when an idea popped into his head: "I wonder why I never thought of this when Azrael got this feisty."

He ran to another table, where he found an old scarf. With it, he walked back to Tamara, and used the scarf to gag her mouth.

"Don't ever get fiesty with me again!" he warned her.

Tamara mumbled something, but through the scarf it became inaudible, which pleased Gargamel, who turned back to look for... whatever it was he was looking for earlier.

This is when Kenny showed himself before Tamara. She mumbled something to him, which sounded like "help me", but Kenny raised his finger to his mouth to sush her.

"Please, try to just think about what you want to say." Kenny told her.

"What?" Tamara thought.

"That worked." Kenny was relieved, "Look, I got very little time to explain, but where it comes down to is that I'm not really here."

As a demonstration, he tried to lean on the nearest table, and kick the nearest stone, all of which fail, so he told her: "See? I can't interact with the surroundings."

"But... what are you then? A ghost?" Tamara thought her question.

"No." that's when the crow appeared to her too, which scared her at first.

"Not to worry." Gargamel spoke to her, thinking that she was scared of him, "In a few hours, the suns will rise. When that happens, I'll black them out and I'll let you out. By then, you should have changed completely."

"What are you doing here?" Kenny asked the crow.

"Gathering information." the crow answered, "And I found it."

"You found what?" Kenny asked it.

"You'll see." the crow replied, "Now go back to your comrades."


	19. Chapter 19

Kenny woke up. He noticed that he, along with the other three, were inside a house, but he didn't recognize it. Ignoring Selene and the Pie-maker's questions as to whether or not he's okay, Kenny asked: "What is this place?"

"An empty house we found." Rorschach answered, "Looks like someone was gone for the night."

"What happened to you?" Selene asked him.

At the same time she asked, the Pie-maker heard something. He couldn't be too sure, but he thought it sounded like the cracking of wood.

"Did you guys hear that?" the Pie-maker asked.

"Ned, if I get startled at every sound I heard..." Selene interrupted.

"Rorschach." Kenny addressed him, "I may need your help."

"You... may need my help?" Rorschach didn't understand.

Kenny talked to the crow in his head: "I hope you know what you're doing."

"It's easy, really." the crow replied, "Tamara could put her mind into other people's heads by just touching them. Now that you're sharing her power..."

"Here goes nothing." Kenny said.

He put both his hands on Rorschach's head. Whatever it was supposed to do, it seemed to work. As though they were slowly being erased from the world, the four of them started to disappear. But that wasn't before the Pie-maker spotted that same Shape of a man that he had seen before. Why he's the only one of the four who kept seeing him, he's not sure. What he is sure about is that this Shape grabbed hold of Rorschach's leg, just as he was fading.

Carpathian Mountains, November 14th 2010:

Having disappeared in Haddonfield, they reappeared in the Carpathian Mountains. Upon doing so, the group was surprised to see they had replaced themselves.

"What... what just happened?" the Pie-maker asked.

Rorschach looked at his leg before answering: "Apart from that strange pain I felt on my ankle just now, you tell me."

"We're in the Carpathians?" Selene seemed to recognize the area.

"Apparently, Tamara had figured out how you could teleport." Kenny answered, upon which he turned to the crow, "Is that the information you wanted from her?"

"Yes." the crow answered, "Unfortunately, Rorschach wasn't strong enough. He could only bring you this far."

Kenny looked around, until his head stopped in the eastern direction: "This way."

"This way to what?" Rorschach asked him.

"I'd love to explain, but there's no time." Kenny answered.

"Not even to deal with our stow-away?" Selene asked.

"Stow-away?" Kenny wondered.

"There was this smell in that town we just left." Selene answered, "And now that smell is here too."

"That man would not have..." the Pie-maker whispered, which appeared to draw the attention of everyone else, so he explained, "I kept seeing this strange man back there. He wouldn't have..."

Having said that, it made Rorschach realize what may be the cause of that pain he had felt on his ankle moments ago.

"If this... man is here now, where is he?" Kenny asked them, as indeed the aforementioned man is nowhere in sight.

And indeed, everyone looked around, but didn't see him.

"Maybe it's just his smell that got carried." Kenny deduced, "Anyway, we're wasting time. Let's go."


	20. Chapter 20

Meanwhile, Gargamel had found what he was looking for. To the casual observer, it was just a petri dish that held some kind of strange goo, but to Gargamel it was more than that. Using a seringe, he picked up the goo from the dish. With it, he returned to Tamara.

"Not to worry." Gargamel told her, "It doesn't work on women as it does on men. Your change will be entirely different."

As best as she could, Tamara tried to squirm away. But to no avail. Once Gargamel was within reach to inject the goo, Tamara closed her eyes. In that moment, she somehow managed to push Gargamel away. The force she used in doing this, however, was strong enough to knock him to the other side of the lair. Once Tamara opened her eyes again, she saw what she did, but didn't understand it. She's chained up, the chains keep her from using her magic, yet somehow she was able to use it against her captor. She wasn't sure of how she did that, but Gargamel was. He realized it before she did, so he got up again.

"That wasn't nice." he complained, "Don't ever do this again, or else..."

Rather than finishing his sentence, Gargamel brought up an electrical charge in his hand, which he wanted to fire on Tamara. Before he could fire, something hit him hard, causing him to hit the floor.

"We made it in time, I see." Rorschach said, as he got up from that tackle.

"Why you..." Gargamel started talking, right before he discharged the electricity he summoned on Rorschach. Doing so, distracted him from noticing Selene (who tried to punch him) and the Pie-maker (who still had his gun in his hand).

Kenny, meanwhile, tried to help Tamara. But the moment he touched the chains that bound her, he felt a shock run through his hands. At that point, Tamara mumbled something, but the scarf gagging her made it incomprehensible. Kenny took off the scarf so she could talk freely.

"It's no use." she said, "He got some kind of spell on them. Everytime I or anyone tries to free me, they get shocked."

"It won't hurt me." Kenny replied as he went back to it.

That's when he was shot in the back. Tamara looked at where it came from. Gargamel had apparently beaten the other three down, so he had enough time to shoot him.

"Will you people just leave me alone?!" Gargamel nearly cried, "Why does everyone has to pester me like this? Don't I deserve some dignity? Don't I?"

That's when he was grabbed from behind. Gargamel couldn't understand it. He was sure he had knocked down everybody, so who's this other person suddenly attacking him? When this question popped in his head, he was too distracted to try and stop this other person, who grabbed hold of that planet-shaped object that he (Gargamel) held on his chest. Gargamel tried to stop him from ripping it off, but as this person kept pulling, Gargamel's strength and speed were weakening. Once it was off, this person released Gargamel, who then turned, only to be faced with that same Shape that he had encountered in Haddonfield.

"You?" he was surprised to see him.

This didn't stop the Shape from throwing the object into the ground, smashing it into pieces. Though for some reason, the blue rock that was inside it was still left in one piece.

"Why you...!" Gargamel started to get really angry, so he ran to that place where he held the dragon-esque creatures. There, he released them all.

"What the...?" Selene spoke as she was getting up from Gargamel's last attack.

"That's that guy I kept seeing back in that town!" the Pie-maker exclaimed.

"How did he get here?" Selene wondered.

Rorschach remembered feeling something on his leg as he was teleporting everyone to the Carpathians. It must have been this Shape, hitching a ride. Either way, it was not important, as he noticed that Gargamel was unleashing some strange creatures.

"Not important." Rorschach spoke, "Better take care of them first."

Both Rorschach and Selene ran to fight those monsters, as did the Shape. The Pie-maker, on the other hand, didn't know what to do.

As that was going on, Kenny recovered from the blast he received from Gargamel.

"I can never get used to that." Kenny remarked.

"Kenny, that rock." Tamara told him, "Get it for me."

He wasn't sure what she'd want to do with it, but Kenny did as Tamara asked him and went to pick it up. Once he had it, he brought it back to her.

"Put it in my hands." Tamara requested.

He did exactly that. From what Tamara could gather, the chains keep her from using her magic to escape, but it doesn't keep her from using magic at all. The easiest thing to do could be to smash the rock she held, but she knows that magical things can find their way to restore themselves again, so the only way to be sure it can't be used again, and therefor Gargamel's powers to be completely destroyed, is to use her own magic to destroy it. As she held it in her hand, she tried to use some of her magic, but it didn't work.

"Maybe this'll help." Kenny suggested, as he put his hands on hers, hoping that they could combine their powers again, as they did before. It helped, but still not good enough.

The Pie-maker, still unsure of what to do, saw what was happening around him. Rorschach, Selene and the Shape, were fighting those monsters valiantly. As this fight was taking place over most of the lair, there was no way for Gargamel to even try to flee the scene. He had to wait for the fight to be over. From there, the Pie-maker turns his attention to Kenny and Tamara. He wasn't sure of what they were doing, though seeing as they held that blue rock in their hands, he could only assume they were somehow trying to use it in their advantage. Trying, as it didn't appear to work. The Pie-maker knew that if he touched dead tissue, it would come back to life, but he didn't know what it would do to people like Tamara or Kenny. Still, he felt more like car's fifth wheel in this group. If Tamara could somehow use other people's strength, maybe there was something from even the Pie-maker that she could use. It was worth trying, he thought to himself. He ran to the two and placed his hands on them.

What happened at that moment, Tamara could not describe it. Whatever power it is that the Pie-maker has, using it on her seemed to give her some kind of boost, which only strengthened her magic, which was enough to finally cause the blue rock to break.

As the rock broke, Gargamel lost his powers. This caused a scream that was enough to draw everybody's attention. This way, before everyone's eyes, Gargamel started to age back to the grey-bearded man they had seen first. But he didn't stop there. He grew much older, until there was nothing but dust and a skeleton left of him.

Seeing as Gargamel and his magic were gone, Tamara could easily use her magic to make her chains disappear. With those gone, she got up.

"Everybody! Close your eyes!" she shouted.

Not knowing what she was planning, everyone did as she told them, upon which she summoned a bright light. If nobody covered their eyes, they'd be blinded. But it wasn't her intention to blind anyone. What she did want to do, was cause a bright enough light that would kill those dragon-esque monsters. Once they were gone, everyone could open their eyes again, to see the smoldering ashes, that were the only remains of these creatures.

"Is it over?" the Pie-maker needed to hear someone say it.

"Yes." Kenny answered, "It is."


	21. Chapter 21

Upon this defeat, the six of them leave the mountains and head back to Selene's mansion. There, they find their old transport vehicle again. They could teleport themselves away, but it was agreed that they had had enough of that. Not to mention that the Shape didn't say a word, so he couldn't give away whether he liked teleportation or not. Either way, Selene stayed at her mansion, while Rorschach used the plane to bring everybody back home.

When Selene entered her mansion, she met with her husband again. At first the two merely look at each other. They only exchange looks, but in doing so a silent conversation was going on between them. They looked at each other for half a minute before they came closer, and eventually wrapped their arms around one another. Selene has had one last fight, and Michael doesn't have any more reason to be angry with her. Either because he understood why she needed it, or because he realized that whether he liked it or not he couldn't stop her anyway. But at that moment, none of it mattered.

The Shape was being returned to Haddonfield. Why or how he managed to travel along with them had been asked, but he never gave an answer. Whenever Tamara decided to put her hand on him to see an answer, the Shape was about ready to attack her. Although she's already dead, even she doesn't really like the idea of being attacked by a knife. In the end, only the Shape knows why he came with them. On their way back to Haddonfield, he reminded himself of exactly that. Before, he had been shot six times, but that didn't stop him from walking around. He had been stabbed, but that didn't weaken him. He was even in the middle of an explosion, which killed his shrink, but not the Shape himself. So when Gargamel, with the powers of Captain Planet arrived and fought him, it appeared as a challenge for him. Before, all his victims were just regular, defenseless people, but this guy was able to fight back. That's why he grabbed Rorschach's leg, just as he was about to teleport, and hitched a ride, as these people seemed to be looking for the same guy. Now that the man in question is dead, the Shape felt pleased with himself.

Once the Shape was dropped off, Rorschach dropped off the other three in Seattle. From there continued his lonely ride back to New York. Not that he'd have any idea of being lonely, although it had been a while since he teamed up with other people in order to fight a common enemy. Speaking of other people, he remembered that during this trip, he had uncovered more of Dr. Manhattan's powers. It made him wonder just how far he could go with those powers. Rather than stopping in New York, he decided to take little detour into a junkyard in Queens. There, he allowed the plane to crash into the junk, causing a huge explosion. Under different circumstances, he wouldn't be survive, but he did.

The Pie-maker returned to his pieshop. There, he found his employee, and only real friend, who flung her arms around him at the first sight of him. Since he didn't have such feelings for her, he didn't really enjoy much of it. Still, given that she was quite excited to do this meant that he was missed after all, and he then realized that he had returned home.

For Tamara, live didn't change much. She could still sense Kenny, but whatever she sensed was weakening. It meant that whatever Kenny's unfinished business was is either finished, or close to it. In which case, she has nothing to worry about. So she returns to walking about, hopefully find the one thing she desires the most, and no more interruptions such as these.

Seattle, Washington, November 21st 2010:

At the hospital, a young woman, whom the doctor and nurses referred to as Tess, was in labour. For her, it's the first time she ever gave birth to a child at all, so the experience is not only new but also extremely painful to her. So much so, she almost wished she wouldn't have to give birth to the child. At some point, somebody called in a code blue, which required the doctor and nurses to leave her. Once they were gone, that was the moment for someone else to enter the room. As Tess was close to tired, she didn't notice anyone entering, until he stroked her hair. Out of reflex, she turned to look at him.

"Kenny?" she questioned.

"Yes, it's me." Kenny replied.

"I thought you... I mean, weren't you...?" she couldn't figure out what or how to ask her question.

"I was." Kenny answered, "But why would I want to miss the birth of my son?"

Tess smiled at that, but then she remembered: "But you can't stay to raise him, can you?"

"I wish I could." Kenny answered.

Tess rubbed his cheek as she was close to tears.

"I can't actually be in this room when he comes." Kenny told her, "But... I'll be watching from over there."

He pointed to a window, which looked outside the room and into the hallway.

"So don't worry, I'll be here." Kenny assured her, "I'll help you get through this."

This reassuring thought helped her reconsider what she had felt. She's doesn't know why, but somehow she knows that Kenny had done something to ensure the birth of their child. Maybe there was something about the way he touched her, maybe it was something she said. Who knows. But if for any reason at all, she shouldn't let his work be for nothing. So by the time the doctor and nurses returned, she was ready to give birth to her and Kenny's son.

Witnessing his birth, Kenny realized something. That his job wasn't just to save his girlfriend and their unborn child, but to also ensure that the world will be relatively safe for them to live in. First, he had to deal with Krimson, then he dealt with Gargamel. If the one wouldn't have succeeded taking over the world, the other would have. And now, he has seen his son being born, and could stick around long enough to hear his name. This was when he could finally close his eyes... forever...

Despite of having just closed them forever, he could open them again. When he did, he found himself floating in a river, which lead to a huge gate. What this meant, he wasn't sure. Last time he was on the other side, this wasn't what he had seen. Maybe, since he had set things right, he has found the perfect place for him to go to. Much like one can live his or her life in many ways, one can be in death in many ways as well. Anyone else who'd find themselves waking up in a river, their first reaction would be to swim out of the water, but there's something about the water that either makes him too weak, or makes him not want to get out. As if he wants it to take him through that gate. At that moment, it didn't matter. Even the squid-like creatures that were swimming in the river, of which he could swear they kept shouting "exterminate", they didn't disturb him at all. It's like even in death, he has found peace.

**THE END**


End file.
